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MIRACLE MONGERS 
AND THEIR METHODS 

A COMPLETE EXPOSE OF THE M0DU9 
OPERANDI OF FIRE EATERS. HEAT 
RESISTERS, POISON EATERS, VENOMOUS 
REPTILE DEFIERS, SWORD SWALLOWERS. 
HUMAN OSTRICHES. STRONG MEN, ETC. 

BV 

HOUDINI 

**Tbb Uhmaokinq or Robbbt HoiratH," inc. 




New Yobk 
E. P. DUTTON & COMPAmr 

681 Fifth Avenoi! 



Copyright 1920 
By E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 

All RigfUs Reserved 



Printed tfi the United Statee oj America 



AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 

TO MT UFE'S HELFBiATEy 

WHO STARVED AND STABBED WITH MB 

DXJBING THE YEABS WE SPENT 

AMONG "MIBACLE MONGEBS" 



PREFACE 



" ALL wonder," said Samuel Johnson, "is 
-t\- the effect of novelty on ignorance. " Yet 
we are so created that without something to 
wonder at we should find life scarcely worth 
living. That fact does not make ignorance 
bliss, or make it "folly to be wise." For the 
wisest man never gets beyond the reach of 
novelty, nor can ever make it his boast that 
there is nothing he is ignorant of ; on the con- 
trary, the wiser he becomes the more clearly 
he sees how much there is of which he remains 
in ignorance. The more he knows, the more 
he will find to wonder at. 

My professional life has been a constant 
record of disillusion, and many things that 
seem wonderful to most men are the every-day 
commonplaces of my business. But I have 
never been without some seeming marvel to 



vi PREFACE 

pique my curiosity and challenge my investiga- 
tion. In this book I have set down some of 
the stories of strange folk and unusual per- 
formers that I have gathered in many years 
of such research. 

Much has been written about the feats of 
miracle-mongers, and not a little in the way 
of explaining them. Chaucer was by no means 
the first to turn shrewd eyes upon wonder- 
workers and show the clay feet of these popu- 
lar idols. And since his time innumerable 
marvels, held to be supernatural, have been 
exposed for the tricks they were. Yet to-day, 
if a mystifier lack the ingenuity to invent a 
new and startling stunt, he can safely fall back 
upon a trick that has been the favorite of press- 
agents the world over in all ages. He can 
imitate the Hindoo fakir who, having thrown 
a rope high into the air, has a boy climb it until 
he is lost to view. He can even have the feat 
photographed. The camera will click ; nothing 
will appear on the developed film; and this, 
the performer will glibly explain, "proves'' 
that the whole company of onlookers was hyp- 
notized! And he can be certain of a very 



PREFACE Ttt 

profitable following to defend and advertise 
him. 

So I do not feel that I need to apologize for 
adding another volume to the shelves of works 
dealing with the marvels of the miracle- 
mongers. My business has given me an in- 
timate knowledge of stage illusions, together 
with many years of experience among show 
people of all types. My familiarity with the 
former, and what I have learned of the psy- 
chology of the latter, has placed me at a cer- 
tain advantage in uncovering the natural ex- 
planation of feats that to the ignorant have 
seemed supernatural. And even if my readers 
are too well informed to be interested in my 
descriptions of the methods of the various per- 
formers who have seemed to me worthy of at- 
tention in these pages, I hope they will find 
some amusement in following the fortunes and 
misfortunes of all manner of strange folk who 
once bewildered the wise men of their day. If 
I have accomplished that much, I shall feel 
amply repaid for my labor. 

HOTJDINL 



CONTENTS 



CHAFTBB PAOB 

I. Fire worship. — ^Fire eating and heat resistance. — ^The 
Middle Ages. — ^Among the Navajo Indians. — ^Fire- 
walkers of Japan. — ^TheKery^Ordealof Fiji 1 

II. Watton's Ship-swabber from the Indies. — ^Richard- 
son, 1667.--De Hdterkeit, 1713.— Robert Powell, 
1718-1780.— Dufour, 1783.— Quackensalber, 1794. 17 

in. The nineteenth century. — ^A "Wonderful Phenom- 
enon." — "The Incombustible Spaniard, Sefior 
lionetto," 1803. — ^Josephine Girardelli, 1814. — John 
Brooks, 1817.— W. C. Houghton, 1832.— J. A. B, 
Chylinski, 1841. — Chamouni, the Russian Sala- 
mander, 1869.— Professor Rel Maeub, 1876.— 
Rivem;(died 1900) 37 

IV.— The Master— Chabert, 1792-1859 64 

V. Fire-eating magicians: Ching ling Foo and Chung 
ling Soo. — ^Fire-eaters employed by magicians: 
Tlie Man-Salamander, 1816. — Mr. Carlton, Pro- 
fessor of Chemistry, 1818. — Miss Cassillis, aged 
mne, 1820. The African Wonder, 1843.— ling 
Look and Yamadeva die in China during EeUar's 
world tour, 1877.— ling Look's double, 1879.— Elec- 
trical effects. The Salambos. — ^Bueno Core. — Del 
Eano. — ^Bamello. — ^Edwin Forrest as a heat-resister 
—The Elder Sothem as a fire-eater.— The Twilight 
of the Art 79 



X CONTENTS 

VI. The Arcana of the fiie-eaters: The formula of 
Albertus Magnus. — Of Hocus Pocus. — ^Richardson's 
method. — Philopyraphagus Ashbumiensis. — To 
breathe forth sparks, smoke and flames. — ^To spout 
natural gas. — ^Professor Sementini's discoveries. — 
To bite off red-hot iron.— To cook in a burning cage. 
— Chabert's oven. — ^To eat coals of fire. — ^To drink 
burning oil. — ^To chew molten lead. — ^To chew 
burning brimstone. — ^To wreathe the face in flames. 
— ^To ignite paper with the breath. — ^To drink boil- 
ing liquor and tot flaming wax 9^ 

Vn. The spheroidal condition of liquids. — Why the hand 
may be dipped in molten metals. — ^Principles of heat 
resistance put to practical uses: Aldini, 1829. — ^In 
early fire-fighting. — ^Temperatures the body can 
endure 121 

Vlll. Sword-swallowers: Cliquot, Delno Fritz, Deodota, a 
razor-swallower, an umbrella-swallower, William 
Dempster, John Cumming, Edith Clifford, Vio- 
torina. 187 

IX. Stone-eaters: A Silesian in Prague, 1006; Francois 
Battalia, ca. 1641; Platerus' be^;ar boy; Father 
Paulian's lithophagus of Avignon, 1760; "The 
Only One in the World," London, 1788; Spaniards 
in London, 1790; a secret for two and six; Japa- 
nese training. — Frog-swallowers: Norton; Eng- 
lish Jack; Bosco; the snake-eater; Billington's 
prescription for hangmen; Captain Veitro. — ^Water- 
spouters; Blaise Manfrede, ca. 1650; Floran Mar- 
chand, 1650 164 

X. Defiers of poisonous reptiles: Thardo; Mrs. Learn, 
dealer in rattle-snakes. — Sir Arthur Thurlow 
Cunjmghame on antidotes for snake-bite. — ^Jack 



CONTENTS zi 

VAGB 

the Viper.— WnHam Oliver, 1735.— Tbe advice of 
Gomdiiis Heinrich Agrippa, (1480-1535). — ^An 
Australian snake stoy. — ^Antidotes for various 
poisons 176 

XL Strongmen of the ei^teenth ooituiy: Thomas Top- 
ham (died, 1749); Joyce, 1703; Van Eskeberg, 
1718; Baisabas and his sister; The Italian Female 
Sampson, 1724; The ''little woman from Geneva," 
1751; Bdaoni, 1778-1823 192 

All. Contemporaiy strong peojde: Charies Jefferson; 
Louis C)]^; John Grun Marx; William Le Roy. — 
Hie Nail King, The Human (Dlaw-hammer; Alex- 
ander Weyer; Mexican Bflly Wdls; A foolhardy 
Italian; T^^lson; Herman; Sampson; Sandow; 
Tucca; La Blanche; Lulu Hurst. — ^The (Georgia 
Magnet, The Electric Giil, etc.; Annie Abbot; 
Biattie Lee Price.— The Twflight c^ the Freaks.— 
The dime museums. ««««,«,««««« 220 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Houdini Frontispiece 

John Evelyn Page 19 

Lady Sunderland " 23 

Robert PoweU " 27 

HandbiU " 44 

Madame Girardelli " 45 

Yamadeva Facing page 52 

Professor Maeub " " 62 

" Fire-king " Chabert " " 62 

HandbiU Page 65 

Portion of Chabert's HandbiU " 61 

HandbiU " 81 

Harry Kellar Facing page 84 

Edith Clifford Page 149 

Thomas Topham " 196 

Dr. Jean Th^ophile Desaguliers " 203 

Johann Carl v. Eckenberg " 207 

Feats of Strength (Plate 19) , " 211 



CHAPTER ONE 



I 



FIRE WORSHIP.— FIRE EATING AND HEAT 

RESISTANCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 

AMONG THE NAVAJO INDIANS. 

FIRE-WALKERS OF JAPAN. ^THE FIERY 

ORDEAL OF FIJL 

TT'IRE has always been and, seemingly, will 
*- always remain, the most terrible of the 
elements. To the early tribes it must also have 
been the most mysterious ; for, while earth and 
air and water were always in evidence, fire 
came and went in a manner which must have 
been quite unaccountable to them. Thus it 
naturally followed that the custom of deifying 
all things which the primitive mind was un- 
able to grasp, led in direct line to the fire- 
worship of later days. 

That fire could be produced through friction 
finally came into the knowledge of man, but 
the early methods entailed much labor. Con- 
sequently our ease-lovii^ forebears cast about 



S MIKACLK-MOMGEBS AND THSnt METHODS 

in a meihod to ^^keep the home fires bmning" 
and hit upon the plan of appointmg a person 
in each anmnmiity who should at all times 
cany a boming hrand. This arrangement had 
many faults, however, and after a while it was 
superseded bjr the expedient of a fire kept con- 
tinually burning in a building erected for the 
purpose. 

The Greeks worshiped at an altar of this 
kind which they called the Altar of Hestia and 
which the Bomans called the Altar of Vesta. 
The sacred fire itself was known as Vesta, and 
its burning was considered a proof of the 
presence of the goddess. The Persians had 
such a building in each town and village ; and 
the Egyptians, such a fire in every temple; 
while the Mexicans, Natches, Peruvians and 
Mayas kept their "national fires'' burning 
upon great pyramids. Eventually the keeping 
of such fires became a sacred rite, and the 
** Eternal Lamps" kept burning in synagogues 
and in Byzantine and Catholic churches may 
be a survival of these customs. 

There is a theory that all architecture, pub- 
lic and private, sacred and profane, began with 



r 



UiaACLE-UONGEBS AND THEIR METHODS t 

the erection of sheds to protect the sacred fire. 
This naturally led men to build for their own 
protection as well, and thus the family hearth 
had its genesis. 

Another theory holds that the keepers of ihe 
sacred fires were the first public servants, and 
that from this small beginning sprang the in- 
tricate public service of the present. 

The worship of the fire itself had been a 
legacy from the earliest tribes ; but it remained 
for the Rosicrucians and the fire philosophers 
of the Sixteenth Century under the lead of 
Paracelsus to establish a concrete religious be- 
lief on that basis, finding in the Scriptures 
what seemed to them ample proof that fire 
was the symbol of the aetual presence of God, 
as in all cases where He is said to have visited 
this earth. He came either in a flame of fire, 
or surrounded with glory, which they conceived 
to mean the same thing. 

For example : when God appeared on Mount 
Sinai (Exod. xix, 18) "The Lord descended 
upon it in fire." Moses, repeating this history, 
said: "The Lord spake unto you out of the 
midst of fire" (Deut. iv, 12). Again, when 



4 MIRACLE-MONGEBS AND THEIR METHODS 

the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses out 
of the flaming bush, ^^the bush burned with 
fire and the bush was not consumed" (Exod. 
iii, 3). Fire from the Lord consumed the 
burnt offering of Aaron (Ley. is, 24), the 
sacrifice of Gideon (Judg. vi, 21), the burnt 
offering of David (1 Chron. xzxi^ 26), and 
that at the dedication of King Solomon's 
temple (Chron. vii, 1). And when Elijah made 
his sacrifice to prove that Baal was not GK>d, 
^^the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the 
burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, 
and the dust and the water that was in the 
trench/' (1 Kings, xviii, 38.) 

Since sacrifice had from the earliest days 
been considered as food offered to the gods, 
it was quite logical to argue that when fire 
from Heaven fell upon the offering, God him- 
self was present and consumed His own. Thus 
the Paracelsists and other fire believers sought, 
and as they believed found, high authority for 
continuing a part of the fire worship of the 
early tribes. 

The Theosophists, according to Hargrave 
Jennings in "The Rosicrucians," called the 



HIBACLE-UONGEBS AND THEIB METHODS • 

eool ft fire taken from the eternal ocean of 
light, and in common with other Fire-Philoe- 
opbers believed that all knowable things, both 
of the soul and the body, were evolved out of 
fire and finally resolvable into it; and that fire 
was the last and only-to-be-kuown God. 

In passing I might call attention to the fact 
that the Devil is supposed to dwell in the same 
element 

Some of the secrets of heat resistance as 
practiced by the dime-museimi and sideshow 
performers of our time, seerets grouped under 
the general title of "Fixe-eating," roust have 
been known in very early times. To quote 
from Chambers"*Bookof Days": "In ancient 
history we find several examples of people who 
possessed the art of touching fire without be- 
ing burned. The Priestesses of Diaua, at 
Gastahala, in Oappadocia, commanded public 
veneration by walking over red-hot iron. The 
Herpi, a people of Etruria, walked among 
glowing embers at an annual festival held on 
Mount Soracte, and thus proved their sacred 
character, receiving certain privileges, among 
others, exemption from military service, from 



6 HIBACLE-HONGEBS AND THEIR METHODS 

the Roman Senate. One of the most astound- 
ing stories of antiquity is related in the ' Zenda- 
Vesta,' to the effect that Zoroaster, to confute 
his calumniators, allowed fluid lead to be 
poured over his body, without receiving any 
injury." 

To me the "astounding" part of this story 
is not in the feat itself, for that is extremely 
easy to accomplish, but in the fact that the 
secret was known at such an early date, which 
the best authorities place at 500 to 1000 B.C. 

It is said that the earliest recorded instance, 
in our era, of ordeal by fire was in the fourth 
century. Simplicius, Bishop of Autun, who 
had been married before his promotion, con- 
tinued to live with his wife, and in order to 
demonstrate the Platonic purity of their inter- 
course placed burning coals upon their flesh 
without injury. 

That the clergy of the Middle Ages, who 
caused accused persons to walk blindfold 
among red-hot plowshares, or hold heated 
irons in their hands, were in possession of the 
secret of the trick, is shown by the fact that 
after trial by ordeal had been abolished the 



MnLACLK-MONCOOS AND THBtt MBTHODS T 

aeeret of tiieir methods was potdished by Al- 
berty Gomit of BoUstadt, usually called Al- 
bertns Magnus but sometimes Albeitus Teu- 
tonicuSy a man distinguished by tbe range of 
his inquiries and his efforts for the spread of 
knowledge. 

These secrets will be fully explained in the 
section of this history devoted to the Arcana 
of the Fire-Eaters (Chapter Six). 

I take the following from the New York 
Clipper-Annual of 1885 : 

The famous fire dance of the Navajo 
Indians, often described as though it in- 
volved some sort of genuine necromancy, 
is explained by a matter-of-fact spectator. 
It is true, he says, that the naked wor- 
shipers cavort round a big bonfire, with 
blazing faggots in their hands, and dash 
the flames over their own and their f el- 
lows ' bodies, all in a most picturesque and 
maniacal fashion ; but their skins are first 
so thickly coated with a clay paint that 
they cannot easily be burned. 

An illustrated article entitled Bites of the 
Firewalking Fanatics of Japan, by W. C. 



8 MIEACLE-MONGEES AND THEIR METHODS 

Jameson Reid, in the Chicago Sunday Inter- 
Ocean of September 27th, 1903, reveals so 
splendid an example of the gullibility of the 
well-informed when the most ordinary trick 
is cleverly presented and surrounded with the 
atmosphere of the occult, that I am impelled 
to place before my readers a few illuminating 
excerpts from Mr. Reid 's narrative. This man 
would, in all probability, scorn to spend a dime 
to witness the performance of a fire-eater in 
a circus sideshow; but after traveling half 
round the world he pays a dollar and spends 
an hour's time watching the fanatical incanta- 
tions of the solemn little Japanese priests for 
the sake of seeing the "Hi-Wattarai" — which 
is merely the stimt of walking over hot coals 
— and he then writes it down as the "eighth 
wonder of the world," while if he had taken 
the trouble to give the matter even the most 
superficial investigation, he could have dis- 
covered that the secret of the trick had been 
made public centuries before. 

Mr. Reid is authority for the statement that 
the Shintoist priests' fire-walking rites have 
"long been one of the puzzling mysteries of 



r 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 9 



tile scienti£c world," and adds "If jon ever 
are in Tokio, and can find a few minutes to 
spare, by all means do not neglect witnessing 
at least one performance of 'Hi-Wattarai' 
(fire walking, and that is really what takes 
place), for, if you are of that incredulous na- 
ture which laughs with scorn at so-called 
Eastern mysticism, you will come away, as has 
many a visitor before you, with an impression 
sufficient to last through an ordinary lifetime. " 
Further on he says "If you do not come away 
convinced that you have been witness of a 
spectacle which makes you disbelieve the evi- 
dence of your own eyes and your most matter- 
of-fact judgment, then you are a man of 
stone." All of which proves nothing more 
than that Mr. Eeid was inclined to make posi- 
tive statements about subjects in which he 
knew little or nothing. 

He tells us further that formerly this rite 
was performed only in the spring and fall, 
when, beside the gratuities of the foreigners, 
the native worshipers brought "gifts of wine, 
large trays of fish, fruit, rice cakes, loaves, 
vegetables, and candies." Evidently the com- 



10 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

bination of box-office receipts with donation 
parties proved extremely tempting to the 
thrifty priests, for they now give what might 
be termed a ** continuous performance/' 

Those who have read the foregoing pages 
will apply a liberal sprinkling of salt to the 
solemn assurance of Mr. Beid, advanced on 
the authority of Jinrikisha boys, that "for 
days beforehand the priests connected with 
the temple devote themselves to fasting and 
prayer to prepare for the ordeal. . . . The 
performance itself usually takes place in the 
late afternoon during twilight in the temple 
court, the preceding three hours being spent 
by the priests in final outbursts of prayer be- 
fore the unveiled altar in the inner sanctuary 
of the little matted temple, and during these 
invocations no visitors are allowed to enter the 
sacred precincts. ' ' 

Mr. Beid's description of the fire walking 
itself may not be out of place; it will show 
that the Japs had nothing new to offer aside 
from the ritualistic ceremonials with which 
they camouflaged the hocus-pocus of the per- 



p 



MXRACLE-MOyCEBS AND THEIB METHODS II 

fbrmance, which is merely a stirvival of the 
ordeal by fire of earlier religions. 

"Shortly before 5 o'clock the priests filed 
from before ttie altar into some intfirior apart- 
ments, where they were to change their beau- 
tiful robes for the coarser dress worn during 
the fire walking. In the meantime coolies had 
been set to work in the courtyard to ignite the 
great bed of charcoal, which had already been 
laid. The dimensions of this bed were about 
twelve feet by four, and, perhaps, a foot deep. 
On the top was a quantity of straw and kind- 
ling wood, which was lighted, and soon burst 
into a roaring blaze. The charcoal bpcame 
more and more thoroughly ignited until the 
whole mass glowed in the imcertain gloom, like 
some gigantic and demoniacal eye of a modem 
Prometheus. As soon as the mass of charcoal 
was thoroughly ignited from top to bottom, a 
small gong in the temple gave notice that the 
wonderful spectacle of 'Hi-Wattarai' waa 
about to begin. 

"Soon two of the priests came out, said 
prayers of almost interminable length at a tiny 
shrine in the comer of the enclosure, and 



18 MIBACLB-MONGBRS AND THEIR METHODS 

turned their attention to the fire. Taking long 
poles and fans from the coolies, they poked 
and encouraged the blaze tiU it could plainly 
be seen that the coal was ignited throughout 
The whole bed was a glowing mass, and the 
heat which rose from it was so intense that 
we found it uncomfortable to sit fifteen feet 
away from it without screening our faces with 
fans. Then they began to pound it down more 
solidly along the middle; as far as possible 
inequalities in its surface were beaten down, 
and the coals which protruded were brushed 
aside." 

There follows a long and detailed descrip- 
tion of further ceremonies, the receiving of 
gifts, etc., which need not be repeated here. 
Now for the trick itself. 

**One of the priests held a pile of white 
powder on a small wooden stand. This was 
said to be salt— which in Japan is credited with 
great cleansing properties— but as far as could 
be ascertained by superficial examination it 
was a mixture of alum and salt. He stood at 
one end of the fire-bed and poised the wooden 
tray over Es head, and then sprinkled a hand- 



MIEACLE-MONGEKS AND THEIR METHODS II 



r 

^m ful of it on the ground before the glowing bed 

^m of coals. At the same time another priest who 

^M etood by him chanted a weird recitative of in- 

^M vocation and struck sparks from flint and steel 

^M which he held in his hands. This same process 

^M was repeated by both the priests at the other 

^M end, at the two sides, and at the comers. 

^P "Ten minutes, more or less, was spent in 

various movements and incantations about the 

bed of coals. At the end of that time two small 

pieces of wet matting were brought out and 

placed at either end and a quantity of the 

white mixture was placed upon them. At a 

signal from the head priest, who acted as 

master of ceremonies during the curious suc- 

■ ceeding fimetion, the ascetics who were to per- 
form the first exhibition of fire-walking gath- 
I ered at one end of the bed of coals, which by 
this time was a fierce and glowing furnace. 

"Having raised both his hands and pros- 
trated himself to render thanks to the god who 
had taken out the 'soul' of the fire, the priest 
about to tmdergo the ordeal stood upon the 
wet matting, wiped his feet lightly in the white 
mixture, and while we held our breaths, and 



14 MIRACXE-MONGEBS AND THEIR METHODS 

our eyes almost leaped from fheir sockets in 
awe-struck astonishment, he walked over the 
glowing mass as unconcernedly as if treading 
on a carpet in a drawing-room, his feet coming 
in contact with the white hot coals at every 
step. He did not hurry or take long steps, 
but sauntered along with almost incredible 
sang-froid, and before he reached the opposite 
side he turned around and sauntered as care- 
lessly back to the mat from which he had 
started.*' 

The story goes on to tell how the perform- 
ance was repeated by the other priests, and 
then by many of the native audience ; but none 
of the Europeans tried it, although invited to 
do so. Mr. Beid's closing statement is that 
"no solution of the mystery can be gleaned, 
even from high scientific authorities who have 
witnessed and closely studied the physical fea- 
tures of these remarkable Shinto fire-walking 
rites.*' Many who are confronted with some- 
thing that they cannot explain take refuge in 
the claim that it puzzles the scientists too. As 
a matter of fact, at the time Mr. Beid wrote, 
such scientists as had given the subject serious 



I 



MIEACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 15 

study were pretty well posted on the methods 
involved. 

An article under the title The Fiery Ordeal 
of Fiji, by Maurice Delcasse, appeared in the 
Wide World Magazine for May, 1898. From 
Mr. Delcasse 's account it appears that the 
Fijian ordeal is practically the same as that 
of the Japanese, as described by Mr. Eeid, ex- 
cept that there is very little ceremony sur- 
rounding it. The people of Fiji until a com- 
paratively recent date were cannibals; but 
their islands are now British possessions, most 
of the natives are Christians, and most of their 
ancient customs have become obsolete, from 
which I deduce that the fire-walking rites 
described in this article must have been per- 
formed by natives who had retained their old 
religious beliefs. 

The ordeal takes place on the Island of 
Benga, which is near Suva, the capital of Fiji, 
and which, Mr. Delcasse says, "was the sup- 
posed residence of some of the old gods of Fiji, 
and was, therefore, considered a sacred land." 
Instead of walking on the live coals, as the 
Japanese priests do, the Fijians walk on stones 



16 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

that have been brought to a white heat in a 
great fire of logs. 

The familiar claim is made that the per-^ 
f ormance puzzles scientists, and that no satis^ 
factory solution has yet been discovered. We 
are about to see that for two or three hundred 
years the same claims have been made by a 
long line of more or less clever public peiv 
formers in Europe and America. 



CHAPTER TWO 



I 



WATTON'S SHIP-SWABBER "FROM THE IN- 
DIES." RICHARDSON, 1667 DE HEIT- 

ERKEIT. 1713. ROBERT POWELL. 1718- 

1780. DUFOUR, 1783. QUACKENSAI^ 

BER, 1794. 

THE earliest mention 1 have f oim3 of a pub- 
lic fire-eater in England is in the corre- 
spondence of Sir Henry Watton, under date of 
Jime 3rd, 1633. He speaks of an Englishman 
"like some swabber of a ship, come from the 
Indies, where he has learned to eat fire as 
familiarly as ever I saw any eat cakes, even 
whole glowing brands, which he will crush with 
his teeth and swallow." This was shown in 
London for two pence. 

The first to attract the attention of the up- 
per classes, however, was one Richardson, who 
appeared in France in the year 1667 and en- 
joyed a vogue sufficient to justify the record 
of his promise in the Journal des Savants. 
Later on he came to London, and John Evelyn, 



18 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

in his diary, mentions him under date of 
October 8th, 1672, as follows: 

I took leave of my Lady Sunderland, 
who was going to Paris to my Lord, now 
Ambassador there. She made me stay 
dinner at Leicester House, and afterwards 
sent for Richardson, the famous fire-eater. 
He devoured brimstone on glowing coals 
before us, chewing and swallowing them; 
he melted a beere-glass and eate it quite up ; 
then taking a live coale on his tongue he 
put on it a raw oyster ; the coal was blown 
on with bellows till it flamed and sparkled 
in his mouthe, and so remained until the 
oyster gaped and was quite boiled. 

Then he melted pitch and wax with sul- 
phur, which he drank down as it flamed : 
I saw it flaming in his mouthe a good while ; 
he also took up a thick piece of iron, such 
as laundresses use to put in their smooth- 
ing-boxes, when it Vas fiery hot, held it 
between his teeth, then in his hand, and 
threw it about like a stone ; but this I ob- 
serv'd he cared not to hold very long. 
Then he stoode on a small pot, and, bend- 
ing his body, tooke a glowing iron with 
his mouthe from betweene his f eete, with- 



I 



MIBACLE-MONGEBS AND THEIB METHODS SI 

ont touching the pot or ground with his 
hands, with divers other prodigious feats. 

The secret methods employed by Richardson 
were disclosed by his servant, and this pub- 
licity seems to have brought his career to a 
sudden close ; at least I have found no record 
of his subsequent movements. 

About 1713 a fire-eater named De Heiter- 
keit, a native of Annivi, in Savoy, flourished 
for a time in London. He performed five times 
a day at the Duke of Marlborough's Head, in 
Fleet Street, the prices being half-a-crown, 
eighteen pence and one shilling. 

According to London Tit-Bits, "De Heiter- 
keit had the honor of exhibiting before Louis 
XIV., the Emperor of Austria, the King of 
Sicily and the Doge of Venice, and his name 
having reached the Inquisition, that holy office 
proposed experimenting on him to find out 
whether he was fireproof externally as well as 
internally. He was preserved from this xxn- 
welcome ordeal, however, by the interference 
of the Duchess Royal, Regent of Savoy." 

His programme did not differ materially 



22 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

from that of his predecessor, Bichaxdson, who 
had antedated him by nearly fifty years. 

By far the most famous of the early fire- 
eaters was Robert Powell, whose public career 
extended over a period of nearly sixty years, 
and who was patronized by the English peer- 
age. It was mainly through the instnmiental- 
ity of Sir Hans Sloane that, in 1751, the Royal 
Society presented Powell a purse of gold and 
a large silver medal. 

Lounger's Commonplace Book says of 
Powell: "Such is his passion for this terrible 
element, that if he were to come hungry into 
your kitchen, while a sirloin was roasting, he 
would eat up the fire and leave the beef. It 
is somewhat surprising that the friends of recA 
merit have not yet promoted him, living as we 
do in an age favorable to men of genius. 
Obliged to wander from place to place, instead 
of indulging himself in private with his 
favorite dish, he is under the uncomfortable 
necessity of eating in public, and helping him- 
self from the kitchen fire of some paltry ale- 
house in the country/' 

His advertisements show that he was before 



MIRACtE-MONGEES AND THEIR METHODS 25 

the public from 1718 to 1780. One of his later 
advertisements runs as follows: 



SUM SOLUS 

Please observe that there are two dif- 
ferent performances the same evening, 
which will be performed by the famous 

MR. POWELL, FIRE-EATER, FROM 
LONDON: 

who has had the honor to exhibit, with 
imiversal applause, the most surprising 
performances that were ever attempted by 
mankind, before His Royal Highness 
WiUiam, late Duke of Cumberland, at 
Windsor Lodge, May 7th, 1752; before 
His Royal Highness the DuJce of Glou- 
cester, at Gloucester House, January 30th, 
1769; before His Royal Highness the 
present Duke of Cumberland, at Windsor 
Lodge, September 25th, 1769 ; before Sir 
Hans Sloane and several of the Royal 
Society, March 4th, 1751, who made Mr. 
Powell a compliment of a purse of gold, 
and a fine large silver medal, which the 



26 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

curious may view by applying to bim ; and 
before most of the Nobility and Quality in 
the Kingdom. 

He intends to sup on the following 
articles: 1. He eats red-hot coals out of 
the fire as natural as bread. 2. He licks 
with his naked tongue red-hot tobacco 
pipes, flaming with brimstone. 3. He 
takes a large bunch of deal matches, lights 
them altogether; and holds them in his 
mouth till the flame is extinguished. 4. 
He takes a red-hot heater out of the fire, 
licks it with his naked tongue several 
times, and carries it around the room be- 
tween his teeth. 5. He fills his mouth with 
red-hot charcoal, and broils a slice of beef 
or mutton upon his tongue, and any per- 
son may blow the fire with a pair of bel- 
lows at the same time. 6. He takes a 
quantity of resin, pitch, bees '-wax, sealing- 
wax, brimstone, alum, and lead, melts 
them all together over a chafing-dish of 
coals, and eats the same combustibles with 
a spoon, as if it were a porringer of broth 
(which he calls his dish of soup), to the 
great and agreeable surprise of the spec- 
tators; with various other extraordinary 
performances never attempted by any 




ROBUrrrowKLL, the Fire eiter,DMini from ths Life n 
kc ivas exhibiting it Oaildfbrd in the Year 178b Be exhlbtiad iai 
puCJckftom theVearI7IS to the above mentionedYcir.asm^yt* 
eoUftCtcd fVomhIs Advertifementsdnrinclhit rrriod. 



MIRACLE-MONGEBS AND THEIB METHODS St) 

other person of this age, and there is 
scarce a possibility ever will ; so that those 
who neglect this opportunity of seeing the 
wonders performed by this artist, will lose 
the sight of the most amazing exhibition 
ever done by man. 

The doors to be opened by six and he 
sups precisely at seven o'clock, without 
any notice given by sound of trumpet. 

If gentry do not choose to come at seven 
o'clock, no performance. 

Prices of admission to ladies and gentle- 
men, one shilling. Back Seats for Chil- 
dren and Servants, six pence. 

Ladies and children may have a private 
performance any hour of the day, by giv- 
ing previous notice. 

N. B. — He displaces teeth or stumps so 
easily as to scarce be felt. He sells a 
chemical liquid whieli discharges inflam- 
mation, scalds, and bums, in a short time, 
and is necessary to be kept in all families. 

His stay in this place wHl be but short, 
not exceeding above two or three nights. 

Good fire to keep the gentry warm. 



This shows how little advance had been made 
in the art in a century. Richardson had pre- 



1 



so MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

sented practically the same programme a hxm- 
dred years before. Perhaps the exposure of 
Richardson's method by his servant put an 
end to fire-eating as a form of amusement for 
a long time, or until the exposure had been 
forgotten by the public. Powell himself, 
though not proof against exposure, seems to 
have been proof against its effects, for he kept 
on the even tenor of his way for sixty years, 
and at the end of his life was still exhibiting. 

Whatever the reason, the eighteenth century 
fire-eaters, like too many magicians of the 
present day, kept to the stereotyped pro- 
grammes of their predecessors. A very few 
did, however, step out of the beaten track and, 
by adding new tricks and giving a new dress 
to old ones, succeeded in securing a following 
that was financially satisfactory. 

In this class a Frenchman by the name of 
Duf our deserves special mention, from the fact 
that he was the first to introduce comedy into 
an act of this nature. He made his how in 
Paris in 1783, and is said to have created quite 
a sensation by his unusual performance. I 
am indebted to Martin's NatiirUche Magie, 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS »1 

1792, for a very complete description of the 
work of this artist. 

Dufour made use of a portable building, 
which was specially adapted to his purposes, 
and his table was spread as if for a banquet, 
except that the edibles were such as his per- 
formance demanded. He employed a trum- 
peter and a tambom- player to furnish music 
for his repast — as well as to attract public 
attention. In addition to fire-eating, Dufom* 
gave exhibitions of his ability to consume im- 
mense quantities of solid food, and he dis- 
played an appetite for live animals, reptiles, 
and insects that probably proved highly enter- 
taining to the not overrefined taste of the 
audiences of his day. He even advertised a 
banquet of which the public was invited to 
partake at a small fee per plate, but since the 
menu consisted of the delicacies just described, 
his audiences declined to join him at table. 

His usual hill-of-f are was as follows : 

Soup — ^boiling tar torches, glowing coals and 
small, roxmd, super-heated stones. 

The roast, when Dufour was really himgry, 
consisted of twenty pounds of beef or a whole 



J 



82 MIBACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

calf. His hearth was either the flat of his hand 
or his tongue. The butter in which the roast 
was served was melted birimatone or burning 
wax. When the roast was cooked to suit him 
he ate coals and roast together. 

As a dessert he would swallow the knives 
and forks, glasses, and the earthenware dishes. 

He kept his audience in good humor by pre- 
senting all this in a spirit of crude comedy 
and, to increase the comedy element, he in- 
troduced a number of trained cats. Although 
the thieving proclivities of cats are well known, 
Dufour's pets showed no desire to share his 
repast, and he had them trained to obey his 
commands during mealtime. At the close of 
the meal he would become violently angry with 
one of them, seize the unlucky offender, tear 
it limb from limb and eat the carcass. One 
of his musicians would then beg him to produce 
the cat, dead or alive. In order to do this 
he would go to a nearby horse-trough and 
drink it dry; would eat a number of pounds 
of soap, or other nauseating substance, clown- 
ing it in a manner to provoke amusement in- 
stead of disgust ; and, further to mask the dis- 



MI&ACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS W 

agreeable features — and also, no doubt, to 
conceal the trick — would take the cloth from 
the table and cover his face; whereupon he 
would bring forth the swallowed eat, or one 
that looked like it, which would howl piteously 
and seem to stru^le wildly while being dis- 
gorged. When freed, the poor cat would rush 
away among the spectators. 

Dufour gave his best performances in the 
evening, as he could then show his hocus-pocus 
to best advantage. At these times he appeared 
with a halo of fire about his head. 

His last appearance in Paris was most re- 
markable. The dinner began with a soup of 
asps in simmering oil. On each side was a 
dish of vegetables, one containing thistles and 
burdocks, and the other fuming acid. Other 
side dishes, of turtles, rats, bats and moles, 
were garnished with live coals. For the fish 
course he ate a dish of snakes in boiling tar 
and pitch. His roast was a screech owl in a 
sauce of glowing brimstone. The salad proved 
to be spider webs full of small explosive squibs, 
a plate of butterfly wings and manna worms, 
a dish of toads surroimded with flies, crickets, 



8« MIRACLE-MONGEBS AND THBIR UETHOD6 

grasshoppers, church beetles, spiders, and 
caterpillars. He washed all this down with 
flaming brandy, and for dessert ate the four 
large candles standing on the table, both of 
the hanging side lamps with their contents, 
and finally the large center lamp, oil, wick and 
all. This leaving the room in darkness, Du- 
four's face shone out in a mask of living flames. 

A dog had come in with a farmer, who was 
probably a confederate, and now began to bark. 
Since Dufour could not quiet him, he seized 
him, bit off his head and swallowed it, throw- 
ing the body aside. Then ensued a comic scene 
between Dufour and the farmer, the latter de- 
manding that his dog be brought to life, which 
threw the audience into paroxysms of laughter. 
Then suddenly candles reappeared and seemed 
to light themselves. Dufour made a series of 
hocus-pocus passes over the dog's body; then 
the head suddenly appeared in its proper place, 
and the dog, with a joyous yelp, ran to his 
master. 

Notwithstanding the fact that Dufour must 
have been by all odds the beat performer of his 
time, I do not find reference to him in any; 



^ 



MIRACLE-MONCEBS AND THEIR METHODS 8fi 

other authority. But something of his origin- 
ality appeared in the work of a much humbler 
practitioner, contemporary or very nearly con- 
temporary with him. 

"We have seen that Richardson, Powell, 
Dufoiir, and generally the better class of fire- 
eaters were able to secure select audiences and 
even to attract the attention of scientists in 
England and on the Continent. But many of 
their effects had been employed by mounte- 
banks and street fakirs since the earliest days 
of the art, and this has continued until com- 
paratively recent times. 

In Naturliche Magie, in 1794, Vol. VT, page 
111, I find an account of one Quackensalber, 
who gave a new twist to the fire-eating indus- 
try by making a "High Pitch" at the fairs and 
on street corners and exhibiting feats of fire- 
resistance, washing his hands and face in 
melted tar, pitch and brimstone, in order to 
attract a crowd. He then strove to sell them a 
eompoimd — composed of fish glue, alum and 
brandy — which he claimed would cure burns in 
two or three hours. He demonstrated that this 
mixture was used by him in his heat resistance : 



96 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

and then, doubtless, some ^^ capper" started the 
ball rolling, and Herr Quackensalber (his 
name indicates a seller of salves) reaped a 
good harvest. 

I have no doubt but that even to-day a clever 
performer with this **High Pitch" could do a 
thriving business in that overgrovm. country 
village, New York. At any rate there is the 
so-called, **King of Bees," a gentleman from 
Pennsylvania, who exhibits himself in a cage 
of netting filled with bees, and then sells the 
admiring throng a specific for bee-stings and 
the wounds of angry wasps. Unfortunately 
the only time I ever saw his majesty, some of 
his bee actors must have forgotten their lines, 
for he was thoroughly stung. 



CHAPTEB THREE 

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. A 'WONDER- 

FUL PHENOMENON." ^^HE INCOMBUS- 
TIBLE SPANDVRD, SENOR UONETTO/' 1803. 

^JOSEPHINE GIRARDELLI, 1814. ^JOHN 

BROOKS, 1817. ^W. C HOUGHTON, 1832. 

^J. A. B. CHYUNSKI, 1841. CHAMOUNI. 

THE RUSSIAN SALAMANDER, 1869. ^PRO- 
FESSOR REL MAEUB, 1876. ^RIVALLI (died 

1900). 

IN the nineteenth century by far the most 
distinguished heat-resister was Ghabert, 
who deserves and shall have a chapter to him- 
self. He commenced exhibiting about 1818, 
but even earlier in the century certain obscurer 
performers had anticipated some of his best 
effects. Among my dippings, for instance, I 
find the following. I regret that I cannot give 
the date, but it is evident from the long form 
of the letters that it was quite early. This is 
the first mention I have found of the hot-oven 
effect afterwards made famous by Chabert. 

87 



i8 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 



WONDERFUL PHENOMENON 

. A correspondent in France writes as 
follows: ^^ Paris has, for some days, rung 
with relations of the wonderful exploits 
of a Spaniard in that city, who is endowed 
with qualities by whidi he resists the 
action of very high degrees of heat, as well 
as the influence of strong chemical re- 
agents. Many histories of the trials to 
which he has been submitted before a 
Commission of the Institute and Medical 
School, have appeared in the public pa- 
pers ; but the public waits with impatience 
for the report to be made in the name of 
the Commission by Professor Pinel. 

The subject of these trials is a young 
man, a native of Toledo, in Spain, 23 
years of age, and free of any apparent 
peculiarities which can annoimce any- 
thing remarkable in the organization of Ids 
skin; after examination, one would be 
rather disposed to conclude a peculiar 
softness than that any hardness or thick- 
ness of the cuticle existed, either naturally 
or from mechanical causes. Nor was there 
any circumstance to indicate that the per- 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS S9 

son had been previously rubbed with any 
matter capable of resisting the operation 
of the agents with which he was brought 
in contact. 

This man bathed for the space of five 
minutes, and without any injurj'^ to his 
sensibility or the surface of the skin, his 
legs in oil, heated at 97° of Reaumur (350 
degrees of Fahrenheit) and with the same 
oil, at the same degree of heat, he washed 
his face and superior extremities. He 
held, for the same space of time, and witlx 
as little inconvenience, his legs in a solu- 
tion of muriate of soda, heated to 102 of 
the same scale, (2611^° Fahr.) He stood 
on and rubbed the soles of his feet with a 
bar of hot iron heated to a white heat ; in 
this state be held the iron in his hands and 
rubbed the surface of his tongue. 

He gargled his mouth with concen- 
trated sulphuric and nitric acids, without 
the smallest injury or discoloration; the 
nitric acid changed the cuticle to a yellow 
color; with the acids in this state he 
rubbed his hands and arms. All these ex- 
periments were continued long enough to 
prove their inefficiency to produce any im- 
pression. It is said, on unquestionable 



40 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

authority, that he remaiiied a considerable 
time in an oven heated to 65° or 70°, (178- 
189° Pahr.) and from which he was with 
difficulty induced to retire, so comfortable 
did he feel at that high temperature. 

It may be proper to remark, that this 
man seems totally uninfluenced by any 
motive to mislead, and, it is said, he has 
refused flattering offers from some re- 
ligious sectaries of turning to emolument 
his singular qualities ; yet on the whole it 
seems to be the opinion of most philosoph- 
ical men, that this person must possess 
some matter which counteracts the opera- 
tion of these agents. To suppose that na- 
ture has organized him differently, would 
be unphilosophic : by habit he might have 
blunted his sensibilities against those im- 
pressions that create pain under ordinary 
circumstances; but how to explain the 
power by which he resists the action of 
those agents which are known to have the 
strongest affinity for animal matter, is a 
circiunstance difficult to comprehend. It 
has not failed, however, to excite the won- 
der of the ignorant and the inquiry of the 
learned at Paris." 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS *1 

This ''Wonderful Phenomenon" may have 
been "the ineombizstihle Spaniard, Senor 
Lionetto,'* whom the London Mirror mentions 
as performing in Paris in 1803 "where he 
attracted the particiilar attention of Dr. 
Sementeni, Professor of Chemistry, and other 
scientific gentlemen of that city. It appears 
that a considerable vapor and smeU rose from 
parts of his body when the fire and heated 
substances were applied, and in this he seems 
to differ from the person now in this coimtry." 
The person here referred to was M. Chabert. 

Dr. Sementeni became so interested in the 
subject that he made a series of experiments 
upon himself, and these were finally crowned 
with success. His experiments will receive 
further attention in the chapter "The Arcana 
of the Fire-Eaters. " 

A veritable sensation was created in Eng- 
land in the year 1814 by Senora Josephine 
Girardelli, who was heralded as having "just 
arrived from the Continent, where she had the 
honor of appearing before most of the crowned 
heads of Europe." She was first spoken of 



42 UIBACLE-UONCERS AND THEIE METHODS 

as German, bat afterwards proved to be of 
Italian birth. 

Entering a field of endeavor which had here- 
tofore been exclusively occupied by the sterner 
sex, this lady displayed a taste for hot meals 
that would seem to recommend her as a matri- 
monial venture. Like all the earlier exploiters 
of the devouring element, she was proclaimed 
as "The Great Phenomena of Nature" — ^why 
the plural form was used does not appear — 
and, doubtless, her feminine instincts led her 
to impart a daintiness to her performance 
which must have appealed to the better class 
of audience in that day. 

The portrait that adorned her first English 
handbill, which I produce from the Picture 
Magazine, was engraved by Page and pub- 
lished by Smeeton, St. Martins Lane, London. 
It is said to be a faithful representation of 
her stage costume and setting. 

Richardson, of Bartholomew Fair fame, 
who was responsible for the introduction of 
many novelties, first presented Girardelli to 
an English audience at Portsmouth, where her 
success was so pronounced that a London ap- 



Mr. Richardson 

theJtMe 

VTill b* epea duriif Oe Mart, wkh db« 

Setltery, Drtuet, 4* Deeorationi of the grtalett ^pUndar, 

PERFORMANCES, 



COMPANY of PERFORMERS, 



SIGNORA JOSEPHINE 

Girardelli, 

FROM THE CONTtNENT, ' 

Ber Power* ofRetiitanee againtt Beat are ineredibte, 

tkt pwn Rsd Hal Inni ovft her Hair. iIm attr htr Tsnew. Anm ind Legi. 
Hold! her iCriiu o>ir Bn imneax; Bod; or Flama, Wuhn bor Haoib id 

BOILING LEAD, 






MIRACLfi-HONGEBS AND THEIB METHODS 47 



pearance was arranged for the same year ; and 
at Mr. Laxton's rooms, 23 New Bond Street, 
her performance attracted the most fashion- 
able metropolitan audiences for a considerable 
time. Following this engagement she ap- 
peared at Richardson's Theater, at Barthol- 
omew Fair, and afterwards toured England 
in the company of Signor Germondi, who ex- 
Mbited a troupe of wonderful trained dogs. 
One of the canine actors was billed as the 
"Russian Moscow Fire Dog, an animal un- 
known in this country, (and never exhibited 
before) who now delights in that element, hav- 
ing been trained for the last six months at very 
great expense and fatigue." 

"Whether Girardelli accumulated sufficient 
wealth to retire or became discouraged by the 
exposure of her methods cannot now be de- 
termined, but after she had occupied a promi- 
nent position in the public eye and the public 
prints for a few seasons she dropped out of 
sight, and I have been tmable to find where 
or how she passed the later years of her life. 

I am even more at a loss concerning her con- 
temporary, John Brooks, of whom I have no 



48 MIBACLE-MONOERS AND THEIR METHODS 

other record than the following letter, which 
appears in the autobiography of the famous 
author-actor-manager, Thomas Dibdin, of the 
Theaters Royal, Covent Garden, Drury Lane, 
Haymarket and others. This one communica- 
tion, however, absolves of auy obUgation to dig 
up proofs of John Brooks' versatility: he ad- 
mits it himself. 

To Mr. T. Dibdin, Esq. Pripetor of the 
Boyal Oircus. 

May 1st, 1817. 
Sir: 

I have taken the Liberty of Biting those 
few lines to ask you the favour if a Gree- 
able for me to Gome to your House, as i 
Gan do a great many different things i 
Can Sing a good Song and i Gan Eat Boil- 
ing hot Lead and Rub iny naked arms 
With a Red hot Poker and Stand on a 
Red hot sheet of iron, and do Dif erent 
other things. — Sir i hope you Will Excuse 
me in Riting I do not Want any thing 
for my Performing for i have Got a Busi- 
ness that will Sirport me I only want to 
pass a Way 2 or 3 Hours in the Evening. 



MIRACLE-MONGEES AND THEIB METHODS 49 

Sir i hope you Will Send me an Answer 
Weather Agreeple or not. 
I am your Humble Servant, 

J. B. 
Direct to me No. 4 fox and Knot Court 
King Street Smithfield. 

John Brooks. 



We shall let this versatile John Brooks close 
the pre-Chabert record and turn our attention 
to the fire-eaters of Chabert's day. Imitation 
may be the sincerest flattery, but in most cases 
the victim of the imitation, it is safe to say, 
will gladly dispense with that form of adula- 
tion. When Chabert first came to America 
and gave fresh impetus to the fire-eating art 
by the introduction of new and startling ma- 
terial, he was beset by many imitators, or — 
as they probably styled themselves — rivals, 
who immediately proceeded, so far as in them 
lay, to out-Chabert Chabert. 

One of the most prominent of these was a 
man named W. C. Houghton, who claimed to 
have challenged Chabert at various times. In 
a newspaper advertisement in Philadelphia, 
where he was scheduled to give a benefit per- 



§0 MIBACLE-MONGEBS AND THEIR METHODS 

f ormaiioe on Saturday eveniiigy Febmary 4tfa, 
1832^ he practically promised to expose the 
meUiod of poiscm eating. Like that of all ex- 
posers^ however, his yogne was of short dura- 
tion, and very little can be found abont this 
super-Ghabert except his advertisements. The 
following will serve as a sample of than: 



'ARCH STREET THEATRE 

BENEFIT 
OP THE AMERICAN FIRE KING 

A CARD.— W. C. Houghton, has the 
honor to annoimce to the ladies and gen- 
tlemen of Philadelphia, that his BENE- 
FIT wiU take place at the ARCH 
STREET THEATRE, on Saturday even- 
ing next, 4th February, when will be pre- 
sented a variety of entertainments aided 
by the whole strength of the company. 

Mr. H. in addition to his former experi- 
ments will exhibit several fiery feats, pro- 
nounced by Mons. Chabert an IMPOSSI- 
BILITY. He wiU give a COMPLETE 
explanation by illustrations of the PRIN- 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS SI 

CIPLES of the EUROPEAN and the 

AMERICAN CHESS PLAYERS. He 
will also (unless prevented by indisposi- 
tion) swallow a sufficient quantity of phos- 
phorus, (presented by either chemist or 
druggist of this city) to destroy the life 
of any individual. Should he not feel dis- 
posed to take the poison, he will satis- 
factorily explain to the audience the man- 
ner it may be taken without injury. 

In our next chapter we shall see how it went 
with others who challenged Chabert. 

A Polish athlete, J. A. B. Chylinski by name, 
toured Great Britain and Ireland in 1841, and 
presented a more than usually diversified en- 
tertainment. Being gifted by nature with ex- 
ceptional bodily strength, and trained in gym- 
nasties, he was enabled to present a mixed 
programme, combining his athletics with feats 
of strength, fire-eating, poison-swallowing, and 
fire-resistance. 

In Ths Book of Wonderful Characters, pub- 
lished in 1869 by John Camden Hotten, Lon- 
don, I find an account of Chamouni, the Rus- 
sian Salamander: "He was insensible, for a 



52 MIRACLE-MONGEBS AND THEIR METHODS 

given time, to the effects of heat. He was 
remarkable for the simplicity and singleness 
of his character, as well as for that idiosyn- 
crasy in his constitution, which enabled him 
for so many years, not merely to brave the 
effects of fire, but to take a delight in an ele- 
ment where other men find destruction. He 
was above all artifice, and would often entreat 
his visitors to melt their own lead, or boil their 
own mercury, that they might be perfectly 
satisfied of the gratification he derived from 
drinking these preparations. He would also 
present his tongue in the most obliging manner 
to all wjio wished, to pour melted lead upon 
it and stamp an impression of their seals.'' 

A fire-proof billed as Professor Rel Maeub, 
was on the programme at the opening of the 
New National Theater, in Philadelphia, Pa., 
in the spring of 1876. If I am not mistaken 
the date was April 25th. He called himself 
**The Great Inferno Fire-King,'' and his 
novelty consisted in having a strip of wet car- 
peting running parallel to the hot iron plates 
on which he walked barefoot, and stepping on 
it occasionally and back onto the hot iron, when 




TAMADEVA 
From portriLiC tiiken In 1876 



I 




TROFESSOR MAEUB 
'Great Itiferiio Fire King" 



"FIRE-KING" CHABBRT 

Froii] II ilrawiris from life liy . 
Mluosi, artist tu ttie King ot Naples 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 58 

a loud hissing and a cloud of steam bore ample 
proof of the high temperature of the metal. 

One of the more recent fireproofs was 
Eugene Kivalli, whose act included, besides the 
usual effects, a cage of fire in which he stood 
completely surrounded by flames. Rivalli, 
whose right name was John Watkins, died in 
1900, in England. He had appeared in Great 
Britain and Ireland as well as on the Continent 
during the later years of the 19th century. 

The cage of fire has been used by a number 
of Rivalli 's followers also, and the reader will 
find a full explanation of the methods em- 
ployed for it in the chapter devoted to the 
Ai'cana of the Fire-eaters, to which we shall 
come when we have recorded the work of the 
master Chabcrt, the history of some of the 
heat-resisters featured on magicians' pro- 
grammes, particularly in our own day, and the 
interest taken in this art by performers whose 
chief distinction was won in other fields, as 
notably Edwin Forrest and the elder Sothem. 



CHAPTER FOUR 

THE MASTER CHABERT, 1792-1859 

IVAN IVANITZ CHABERT, the only 
Really Incombustible Phenomenon, as he 

was billed abroad, or J. Xavier Chabert, A,M., 
M.D., etc., as he was afterwards known in this 
comitry, was probably the most notable, and 
certainly the most interesting, character in 
the history of fire-eating, fire-resistance, and 
poison eating. He was the last prominent figure 
in the long line of this type of artists to appeal 
to the better classes and to attract the attention 
of scientists, who for a considerable period 
treated his achievements more or less seriously. 
Henry Evanion gave me a valuable collection 
of Chabert clippings, hand-bills, etc., and re- 
lated many interesting incidents in connection 
with this man of wonders. 
It seems quite impossible for me to write 

6i 



Really Incombiistlble PhenomenoB 

Thu,«Dd every HCCfrediiigDBV.UDiil furtherNo*lc«, 

At N0.8T, PAU. MALL, 

FKOMT SEATS >. SECOND SEAI^ > BACK SKATS l> 









B A BAND WILX ATTENH. 



Hlnatl, UcipnkitWtiadlMM, 



r 



MIRACLE-XIOSGEES AND THEIR METHODS S7 

of any historical character in Magic or its 
allied arts without recalling my dear old friend 
Evanion, who introduced me to a throng of 
fascinating characters, ■with each of whom he 
seemed almost as familiar as if they had been 
daily companions. 

Subsequently I discovered an old engraving i 
of Chabert, published in London in 1829, and 
later still another which bore the change of 
name, as well as the titles enumerated above. 
The latter was published in New York, Sep- 
tember, 1836, and bore the inseripton: "One 
of the most celebrated Chemists, Philosophers, 
and Physicians of the present day." These 
discoveries, together with a clue from Evanion, 
led to further investigations, which resulted in 
the interesting discovery that this one-time 
Batholomew Fair entertainer spent the last 
years of his life in Nevr York City. He re- 
sided here for twenty-seven years and lies 
buried in the beautiful Cypress Hills Ceme- 
tery, quite forgotten by the man on the street. 

Nearby is the grave of good old Signor Blitz, 
and not far away is the plot that holds all that 
is mortal of my beloved parents. When I 



58 MIBACLE-MONOEBS AND THEIB METHODS 

finally break away from earthly chains and 
restraints, I hope to be placed beside them. 

During my search for data regarding Cha- 
bert I looked in the telephone book for a pos- 
sible descendant. By accident I picked up the 
Suburban instead of the Metropolitan edition, 
and there I found a Victor E. Chabert living 
at Allenhurst, N. J. I immediately got into 
communication with him and found that he 
was a grandson of the Fire King, but he could 
give me no more information than I already 
possessed, which I now spread before my 
readers. 

M. Chabert was a son of Joseph and Therese 
Julienne Chabert. He was bom on May 10th, 
1792, at Avignon, France. 

Chabert was a soldier in the Napoleonic 
wars, was exiled to Siberia and escaped to Eng- 
land. His grandson has a bronze Napoleon 
medal which was presented to Chabert, pre- 
sumably for valor on the field of battle. Na- 
poleon was exiled in 1815 and again three years 
later. Chabert first attracted public notice in 
Paris, at which time his demonstrations of 
heat-resistance were sufficiently astonishing to 



meiift Ibe attention of do Ibbb a bodj than the 
Kational Institiite. 

To the more fafniTiar feats of his predeeea- 
8018 he added startling noTetties in the ait of 
heat^reststanee, the most spectacular being 
that of entering a laige iron cabinet^ which 
resembled a common baker's oxen, heated to 
the usual temperature of such oTens. He car- 
ried in his hand a 1^ of mutton and remained 
until the meat was thoroughly cooked* An- 
other thriller iuTolred standing in a flaming 
tar-barrel until it was entirely consumed 
around him. 

In 1828, Ghabert gave a series of perf on^- 
anees at the Argyle Booms in London, and 
created a veritable sensation. A correspondent 
in the London Mirror has this to say of 
Chabert's work at that time : "Of M. Chabert's 
wonderful power of withstanding the opera- 
tion of the fiery element, it is in the recollection 
of the writer of witnessing, some few years 
back, this same individual (in connection with 
the no-less fire-proof Signora Girardelli) ex- 
hibiting 'extraordinary proofs of his super- 
natural power of resisting the most intense 



60 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIH METHODS 

heat of every kind.' Since which an improve- 
ment of a more formidable nature has to our 
astonished fancy been just demonstrated. In 
the newspapers of the past week it is reported 
that he, in the first instance, refreshed him- 
self with a hearty meaJ of phosphorus, which 
was, at his own request, supplied to him very 
liberally by several of his visitors, who were 
previously unacquainted with him. He washed 
down (they say) this infernal fare with solu- 
tions of arsenic and oxalic acid ; thus throwing 
into the background the long-established fame 
of Mithridates. He next swallowed with great 
gout, several spoonfuls of boiling oil ; and, as 
a dessert to this delicate repast, helped him- 
self with his naked hands to a considerable 
quantity of molten lead. The experiment, how- 
ever, of entering into a hot oven, together with 
a quantity of meat, sufficient, when cooked, to 
regale those of his friends who were specially 
invited to witness his performance, was the 
chef'd'ceuvre of the day. Having ordered 
three fagots of wood, which is the quantity 
generally used by bakers, to be thrown into 
the oven, and they being set on fire, twelve 



A 



UIEACLE-MONGEBS AND THEIE METHODS 6« 

more fagots of the same size were subsequently 
added to them, which being all consimaed by 
three o'clock, M. Chabert entered the oven with 
a dish of raw meat, and when It was sufficiently 
done he handed it out, took in another, and 
remained therein until tlie second quantity was 
also weU cooked ; he then came out of the oven, 
and sat down, continues the report, to partake, 
with a respectable assembly of friends, of 
those viands he had so closely attended during 
the culinary process. Publicly, on a subse- 
quent day, and in an oven 6 feet by 7, and at 
a heat of about 220, he remained till a steak 
was properly done, and again returned to his 
fiery den and continued for a period of thirty 
minutes, in complete triumph over the power 
of an element so much dreaded by humankind, 
and so destructive to animal nature. It has 
been properly observed, that there are prepa- 
rations which so indurate the cuticle, as to 
render it insensible to the heat of either boil- 
ing oil or melted lead ; and the fatal qualities 
of certain poisons may be destroyed, if the 
medium through which, they are imbibed, as 
we suppose to. bfi the case here, is a strong 



64 MIRACLE-MONGEBS AND THEIR METHODS 

alkali. Many experiments, as to the extent to 
which the human frame could bear heat, with- 
out the destruction of the vital powers, have 
been tried from time to time; but so far as 
recollection serves, Monsieur Chabert's fire- 
resisting qualities are greater than those pro- 
fessed by individuals who, before him, have 
undergone this species of ordeal/' 

It was announced some time ago, in one of 
the French journals, that experiments had 
been tried with a female, whose fire-standing 
qualities had excited great astonii^bment She, 
it appears, was placed in a heated oven, into 
which live dogs, cats, and rabbits were con- 
veyed. The poor animals died in a state of 
convulsion almost immediately, while the Fire- 
queen bore the heat without complaining. In 
that instance, however, the heat of the oven 
was not so great as that which M. Chabert en- 
countered. 

Much of the power to resist greater degrees 
of heat than can other men may be a natural 
gift, much the result of chemical applications, 
and much from having the parts indurated by 
long practice ; probably all three are combined 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 65 

in this phenomenon, with some portion of 
artifice. 

In Timbs' Curiosities of London, published 
in 1867, I find the following: 

At the Argyle Booms, London, in 1829, 
Mons. Chabert, the Fire-King, exhibited 
his powers of resisting poisons, and with- 
standing extreme heat. He swallowed 
forty grains of phosphorus, sipped oil at 
333° with impunity, and rubbed a red-hot 
fire-shovel over his tongue, hair, and face, 
unharmed. 

On September 23d, on a challenge of 
£50, Chabert repeated these feats and won 
the wager; he next swallowed a piece of 
burning torch ; and then, dressed in coarae 
woolen, entered an oven heated to 380°, 
sang a song, and cooked two dishes of beef ■ 
steaks. 

Still, the performances were suspected, 
and in fact, proved to he a chemical juggle. 

Another challenge in the same year is re- 
corded under the heading, "Sights of Lon- 
don," as follows: 

We were tempted on "Wednesday to the 



66 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

Argyle Rooms by the challenge of a per- 
son of the xmcommon name of J. Smith 
to M. Chabert, oiir old friend the Fire 
King, whom this individual dared to in- 
vite to a trial of powers in swallowing 
poison and being baked! The audacity 
of such a step quite amazed us; and 
expecting to see in the competitor at 
least a Vulcan, the God of all Smiths, 
was hastened to the scene of strife. 
Alas, our disappointment was complete 1 
Smith had not even the courage of a 
blacksmith for standing fire, and yielded 
a stake of £50, as was stated, with- 
out a contest, to M. Chabert, on the latter 
coming out of his oven with his own two 
steaks perfectly cooked. On this occasion 
Chabert took 20 grains of phosphorus, 
swallowed oil heated to nearly 100° above 
boiling water, took molten lead out of a 
ladle with his fingers and cooled it on his 
tongue ; and, besides performing other re- 
markable feats, remained five minutes in 
the oven at a temperature of between 300" 
and 400° by the thermometer. There was 
about 150 persons present, many of them 
medical men; and being convinced that 
these things were fairly done, without 



MIRACLE-MONGEES AND THEIR METHODS 67 

trickery, much astonisluueiit was ex- 



The following detailed account of the latter 
challenge appeared in the Chronicle, London, 
September, 1829. 

THE FIRE KING AND HIS CHAL- 
LENGER. — An advertisement appeared 
lately in one of the papers, in which a 
Mr. J. Smith after insinuating that M. 
Chabert practised some juggle when he 
appeared to enter an oven heated to five 
hundred degrees, and to swallow twenty 
grains of phosphorus, challenged him to 
perform the exploits which he professed 
to be performing daily. In consequence 
M. Chabert publicly accepted Mr. J. 
Smith's challenge for £50, requesting him 
to provide the poison himself. A day was 
fixed upon which the challenge was to be 
determined, and at two o'clock on that 
day, a number of gentlemen assembled in 
the Argyle-rooms, where the exhibition 
was to take place. At a little before three 
the fire-king made his appearance near hia 
oven, and as some impatience had been 
exhibited, owing to the non-arrival of Mr. 



M MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

J. Smithy he offered to amuse the company 
with a few trifling experiments. He made 
a shovel red-hot and rubbed it over his 
tongue, a trick for which no credit, he said, 
was due, as the moisture of the tongue was 
sufficient to prevent any injury arising 
from it He next rubbed it over his hair 
and face, declaring that anybody might 
perform the same feat by first washing 
themselves in a mixture of spirits of sul- 
phur and alum, which, by cautersing the 
epiderms, hardened the skin to resist the 
fire. 

He put his hand into some melted lead, 
took a small portion of it out, placed it in 
his mouth, and then gave it in a solid state 
to some of the company. This perform- 
ance, according to his account, was also 
very easy ; for he seized only a very small 
particle, which, by a tight compression 
between the forefinger and the thumb, be- 
came cool before it reached the mouth. At 
this time Mr. Smith made his appearance, 
and M. Chabert forthwith prepared him- 
self for mightier undertakings. A cruse 
of oil was brought forward and poured 
into a saucepan, which was previously 
turned upside down, to show that there 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 68 



was no water in it. The alleged reason 
for this step was, that the vulgar con- 
jurors, who profess to drink boiling oil, 
place the oil in water, and drink it when 
the water boils, at wliich time the oil is 
not warmer than an ordinary cup of tea. 
He intended to drink the oil when any 
person might see it bubbling in the sauce- 
pan, and when the thermometer would 
prove that it was heated to three hundred 
and sixty degrees. The saucepan was ac- 
cordingly placed on the fire, and as it was 
acquiring the requisite heat, the fire-king 
challenged any man living to drink a 
spoonful of the oil at the same tempera- 
ture as that at which he was going to drink 
it. In a few minutes afterwards, he 
sipped off a spoonful with greatest ap- 
parent ease, although the spoon, from con- 
tact with the boiling fluid, had become too 
hot for ordinary fingers to handle. 

"And now, Monsieur Smith," said the 
fire-king, "now for your challenge. Have 
you prepared yourself with phosphorus, 
or will you take some of mine, which is 
laid on that table?" Mr. Smith, walked 
up to the table, and pulling a vial bottle 



70 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

out of his pocket, offered it to the poison- 
gwallower. 

Fire-king — ^**I ask you, on your honor 
as a gentleman, is this genuine unmixed 
poison f*^ 

Mr. Smith— "It is, upon my honor/* 

Fire-king — ^**Is there any medical gen- 
tleman here who will examine itf 

A person in the room requested that 
Dr. Gordon Smith, one of the medical 
professors in the London University, 
would examine the vial, and decide 
whether it contained genuine phosphorus. 

The professor went to the table, on 
which the formidable collection of poisons 
— such as red and white arsenic, hydro- 
cyanic add, morphine and phosphorus — 
was placed, and, examining the vial, de- 
clared, that, to the best of his judgment, 
it was genuine phosphorus. 

M. Chabert asked Mr. Smith, how many 
grains he wished to commence his first 
draught with. Mr. Smith — ^** Twenty 
grains wiU do as a commencement." 

A medical gentleman then came forward 
and cut off two parcels of phosphorus, 
containing twenty grains eadi. He was 
placing them in the water, when the fire- 



HIBACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 71 

king requested that his phosphorxis might 
be cut into smaU pieces, as he did not wish 
the pieces to atop on their way to his 
stomach. The poisons were now pre- 
pared. A wine-glass contained the portion 
set aside for the fire-king — a tumbler the 
portion reserved for Mr. Smith. 

The Fire-king — "I suppose, gentlemen, 
I must begin, and to convince you that 
I do not juggle, I will first take off my 
coat, and then I will trouble you, doctor 
(speaking to Dr. Gordon Smith), to tie my 
hands together behind me. After he had 
been bandaged in this manner, he planted 
himself on one knee in the middle of the 
room, and requested some gentleman to 
place the phosphorus on Ms tongue and 
pour the water down his throat. This was 
accordingly done, and the water and phos- 
phorus were swallowed together. He then 
opened his mouth and requested the com- 
pany to look whether any portion of the 
phosphorus remained in his mouth. Sev- 
eral gentlemen examined his mouth, and 
declared that there was no phosphorus 
perceptible either upon or under his 
tongue. He was tben by his ovra desire 
unbandaged. The fire-king forthwith 



78 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

turned to Mr. Smith and offered liim the 
other glass of phosphorus. Mr. Smith 
started back in infinite alarm— * Not for 
worlds, Sir, not for worlds ; I beg to de- 
cline it.' 

The Pire-king — ^**Then wherefore did 
you send me a challenge? You pledged 
your honor to drink it, if I did; I have 
done it ; and if you are a gentleman, you 
must drink it too/' 

Mr. Smith — ^**No, no, I must be excused: 
I am quite satisfied without it." 

Here several voices exclaimed that the 
bet was lost. Some said there must be a 
confederacy between the challenger and 
the challenged, and others asked whether 
any money had been deposited ? The fire- 
king called a Mr. White forward, who 
deposed that he held the stakes, which had 
been regularly placed in his hands, by both 
parties, before twelve o'clock that morn- 
ing. 

The fire-king here turned round with 
great exultation to the company, and pull- 
ing a bottle out of his pocket, exclaimed, 
**I did never see this gentleman before this 
morning, and I did not know but that he 
migh* be bold enough to venture to take 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS TB 



this quantity of poison. I was determined 
not to let him lose his life by his foolish 
wager, and therefore I did bring an anti- 
dote in my pocket, which would have pre- 
vented him from suffering any harm." 
Mr. Smith said his object was answered by 
seeing twenty grains of genuine phos- 
phorus swallowed. He had conceived it 
impossible, as three grains were quite suffi- 
cient to destroy life. The fire-king then 
withdi'ew into another room for the pro- 
fessed purpose of pntting on his usual 
dress for entering the oven, but in all 
probability for the purpose of getting the 
phosphorus out of his stomach. 

After an absence of twenty minutes, he 
returned, dressed in a coarse woolen coat, 
to enter the heated oven. Before he en- 
tered it, a medical gentleman ascertained 
that his pulse was vibrating ninety-eight 
times a minute. He remained in the oven 
five minutes, during which time he sung 
he Vaillant Troubadour, and superin- 
tended the cooking of two dishes of beef 
steaks. At the end of that time he came 
out, perspiring profusely, and with a pulse 
making one hundred and sixty-eight vi- 
brations in a minute. The thermometer, 



7* MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

when brought out of the oven, stood at 
three hundred and eighty degrees ; within 
the oven he said it was above six hundred. 



Althoxigh he was suspected of trickery by 
many, was often challenged, and had an army 
of rivals and imitators, all available records 
show that Chabert was beyond a doubt the 
greatest fire and poison register that ever ap- 
peared in London. 

Seeking new laurels, he came to America in 
1832, and although he was successful in New 
York, his subsequent tour of the States was 
financially disastrous. He evidently saved 
enough from the wreck, however, to start in 
business, and the declining years of his event- 
ful life were passed in the comparative ob- 
scurity of a little drug store in Grand Street. 

As his biographer I regret to be obliged to 
chronicle the fact that he made and sold an 
alleged specific for the White Plague, thus en- 
abling his detractors to couple with his name 
the word Quack. The following article, which 
appeared in the New York Herald of Septem- 
ber 1st, 1859, three da^ after Chabert 's death, 



HIBACLE-MONGERS AND THEIB UETHODS T5 

gives further details of his activitiee in this 
country: 



"We published among the obituary no- 
tices in yesterday's Herald the death of 
Dr. Julian Xavier Chabert, the **Pire 
King," aged 67 years, of pulmonary con- 
sumption- Dr. C. was a native of PVance, 
and came to this country in 1832, and was 
first introduced to the public at the lecture 
room of the old Clinton Hall, in Nassau 
Street, where he gave exhibitions by enter- 
ing a hot oven of his own construction, 
and while there gave evidence of his 
salamander qualities by cooking beef 
steaks, to the surprise and astonishment 
of his audiences. 

It was a question to many whether the 
Doctor's oven was red-hot or not, as he 
never allowed any person to approach him 
during the exhibition or take part in the 
proceedings. He made a tour of tha 
United States in giving these exhibitions, 
which resulted in financial bankruptcy. 
At the breaking out of the cholera in 1832 
he turned Doctor, and appended M.D., to 
his name, and suddenly his newspaper ad- 
vertisements claimed for him the title of 



76 MIBACLE-MONOEBS AND THEIR METHODS 

fhe celebrated Fire King, the curer of 
consumption, the maker of Chinese Lo- 
tion, etc. 

While the Doctor was at the height of 
his popularity, some wag perpetrated the 
following joke in a newspaper paragraph : 
<< During some experiments he was mak- 
ing in chemistry last week, an explosion 
took place whidi entirely bewildered his 
faculties and left him in a condition bor- 
dering on the grave. He was blown into 
a thousand atoms. It took place on Wed- 
nesday of last week and some accounts 
state that it grew out of an experiment 
with phosphoric ether, others that it was 
by a too liberal indulgence in Prussic acid, 
an article which, from its resemblance to 
the peach, he was remarkably fond of hav- 
ing about him/' 

The Doctor was extensively accused of 
quackery, and on one occasion when the 
Herald touched on the same subject^ it 
brought him to our ofl&ce and he exhibited 
diplomas, certificates and medical honors 
without number. 

The Doctor was remarkable for his pro- 
lific display of jewelry and medals of 
honor, and by his extensive display of 



MIHACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 77 

beard. He found a rival in tliis city in 
the person of another J^rench "chemist," 
who gave the Doctor considerable opposi- 
tion and consequently much trouble. 

The Doctor was famous, also, for his 
four-horse turnouts in Broadway, alter- 
nating, when he saw proper, to a change 
to the "tandem" style. He married an 
Irish lady whom he at first supposed to 
be immensely rich, but after the nuptials 
it was discovered that she merely had a 
life interest in a large estate in common 
with several others. 

The Doctor, it appears, was formerly a 
soldier in the French Army, and quite 
recently he received from thence a medal 
of the order of St. Helena, an account of 
which appeared in the Herald. Prior to 
his death he was engaged in writing his 
biography (in French) and had it nearly 
ready for publication- 



Here follows a supposedly humorous speech 
in broken English, quoted from the London 
Lancet, in which the Doctor is satirized. Con- 
tinuing, the articles says: 

"The Doctor was what was termed a 



n MIRACLE-MONOEBS AND THEIR METHODS 

'fast liyer/ and at the time of his death 
he kept a drug store in Grand Street^ and 
had very little of this world's goods. He 
leaves three children to mourn his loss, 
one of them an educated physician, resid- 
ing in Hoboken^ N. J. 

Br. 0. has 'gone to that bourne whence 
no traveller returns,' and we fervently 
trust and hope that the disembodied 
spirits of the tens of thousands whom he 
has treated in this sphere will treat him 
with the same science with which he 
treated them while in this wicked world.'' 



CHAPTER FIVE 

FIRE-EATING MAGICIANS: CHING UNO FOO 

AND CHUNG LING SOO. -FIRE-EATERS 

EMPLOYED BY MAGACIANS: THE MAN- 
SALAMANDER, 1816; MR. CARLTON, PRO- 
FESSOR OF CHEMISTRY, i8l8; MISS CAS- 
SELLI, AGED NINE, 1820; THE AFRICAN 
WONDER, 1843: UNG LOOK AND YAMA- 
DEVA DIE IN CHINA DURING KELLAR'S 
WORLD TOUR, 1S72 ,■ LING LOOK'S DOUBLE, 

1879. ELECTRICAL EFFECTS, THE SA- 

LAMBOS. BUENO CORE. DEL KANO. 

BARNELLO. EDWIN FORREST AS A 

HEAT-REGISTER. THE ELDER SOTHERN 

AS A FIRE-EATER. ^THE TWILIGHT OF 

THE ART. 



M'ANY of our most noted magicians have 
considered it not beneath their dignity 
to introduce fire-eating into their programmes, 
either in their own work or by the employment 
of a "Fire Artist." Although seldom present- 
ing it in his recent performances, Ching Ling 
Foo is a fire-eater of the highest type, refining 



80 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

the effect with the same subtle artistry that 
marks all the work of this super-magician. 

Of Poo's thousand imitators the only posi- 
tively successful one was William E. Robinson, 
whose tragic death while in the performance of 
the buUet-catching trick is the latest addition to 
the long list of casualties chargeable to that 
ill-omened juggle. He carried the imitation 
even as far as the name, calling himself Chung 
liing Soo. Bobinson was very successful in 
the classic trick of apparently eating large 
quantities of cotton and blowing smoke and 
sparks from the mouth. His teeth were finally 
quite destroyed by the continued performance 
of this trick, the method of which may be 
found in Chapter Six. 

The employment of fire-eaters by magicians 
began a century ago ; for in 1816 the magician 
Sieur Boaz, K. C, featured a performer who 
was billed as the "Man-Salamander.** The 
fact that Boaz gave him a place on his pro- 
gramme is proof that this man was clever, but 
the effects there listed show nothing original. 

In 1818 a Mr. Carlton, Professor of Chem- 
istry, toured England in company with Eae, 



WONDERS!! ! 

Sieur JSoaz, K. C. 

THAjSLATHtTHGIC 

OBOLIGUMS, 

On Monday Rvaiiiig tb« 19th of August IS10, u die C&taJ 
modious Room- Swan Yard Think. 



HE WtLIi SWALLOW 

Knives and Forks, 

Yoiin^ Child 



MR V*4JVDIOLt 



Phpnomenon of Uomnn Exertitm i 

Soiling Lead, 



■JOi- 



MIRACLE-MONGEHS AND THEIR METHODS 88 

the Bartholomew Fair magician. As will be 
seen by the handbill reproduced here, Carlton 
promised to explain the "Deceptive Part" of 
the performance, "when there is a sufficient 
company." 

In 1820 a Mr. Cassillis toured England with 
a juvenile company, one of the features of 
which was Miss Cassillis, aged nine years, 
whose act was a complete reproduction of the 
programme of Boaz, concluding her perform- 
ance with the "Chinese Fire Trick." 

A Negro, Carlo Alberto, appeared in a bene- 
fit performance given by Herr Julian, who 
styled himself the "Wizard of the South," in 
London, on November 28th, 1843. Alberto was 
billed as the "Great African Wonder, the Fire 
King" and it was promised that he woidd "go 
through part of his wonderful performance as 
given by him in the principal theaters in 
America, in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, 
etc." 

A later nimiber on the same bill reads : "The 
African Wonder, Carlo Alberto, will sing sev- 
eral new and popular Negro melodies." Col- 
lectors of minstrel data please take notice I 



84 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

In more recent times there have been a nima- 
ber of Negro fire-eaters, but none seems to 
have risen to noticeable prominence. 

Ling Look, one of the best of contemporary 
fire performers, was with Dean Harry Kellar 
when the latter made his famous trip around 
the world in 1877. Look combined fire-eating 
and sword-swallowing in a rather startling 
manner. His best effect was the swallowing 
of a red-hot sword.' Another thriller consisted 
in fastening a long sword to the stock of a 
musket ; when he had swallowed about half the 
length of the blade, he discharged the gun and 
the recoil drove the sword suddenly down his 
throat to the very hilt. Although Look always 
appeared in a Chinese make-up, Dean Kellar 
told me that he thought his right name was 
Dave Gueter, and that he was bom in Buda 
Pesth. 

Yamadeva, a brother of Ling Look, was also 



' I never saw Ling Look's work, but I know that some of 
the sword awallowers have made use of a sheath which vaa 
swallowed before the performance, and the sworda were simply 
pushed into it. ' A sbeath of this kind lined with asbestos 
might easily have served as a protection against the red-hot 
blade. 



r 



I 



IIIBACLE-MONGERS AND THEIB METHODS 85 

with the Kellar Company, doing cabinet mani- 
festations and I'ope escapes. Both brothers 
died in China during this engagement, and a 
strange incident occurred in connection with 
their deaths. Just before they were to sail 
from Shanghai on the P- & O. steamer Khiva 
for Hong Kong, Tamadeva and Kellar visited 
the bowling alley of The Hermitage, a pleasure 
resort on the Bubbling "Well Road. They were 
watching a husky sea captain, who was using 
a huge ball and making a ''double spare" at 
every roll, when Yamadeva suddenly re- 
marked, *'I can handle one as heavy as that big 
loafer can." Suiting the action to the word, 
he seized one of the largest balls and drove 
it down the alley with all his might; but he 
had misjudged his own strength, and he paid 
for the foolhardy act with his life, for he had 
no sooner delivered the ball than he grasped 
his side and moaned with pain. He had hardly 
sufficient strength to get back to the ship, 
where he went immediately to bed and died 
shortly afterward. An examination showed 
that he had ruptured an artery. 
Kellar and Ling Look had much difficulty 




S6 MIBACLE-MONGEBS AND THEIR METHODS 

in persuading the captain to take the body to 
Hong Kong, but he finally consented. On the 
way down the Tang Tse Elang River, Look 
was greatly depressed; but all at once he be- 
came strangely excited, and said that his 
brother was not dead, for he had just heard 
the peculiar whistle with which they had al- 
ways called each other. The whistle was sev- 
eral times repeated, and was heard by all on 
board. Finally the captain, convinced that 
something was wrong, had the lid removed 
from the coffin, but the body of Tamadeva gave 
no indication of life, and all save Ling Look 
decided that they must have been mistaken. 

Poor Ling Look, however, sobbingly said to 
Kellar, "I shall never leave Hong Kong alive. 
My brother has called me to join him." This 
prediction was fulfilled, for shortly after their 
arrival in Hong Kong he underwent an opera- 
tion for a liver trouble, and died under the 
knife. The brothers were buried in Happy 
Valley, Hong Kong, in the year 1877. 

All this was related to me at the Marlbor- 
ough-Blenheim, Atlantic City, in June, 1908, 
by Kellar himself, and portions of it were re- 



MIRACLE-MONGEES AND THEIE METHODS 87 

peated in 1917 wBen Dean Kellar sat by me 
at the Society of American Magicians' dinner. 

In 1879 there appeared in England a per- 
former who claimed to be the original Ling 
Look. He wore his make-up both on and off 
the stage, and copied, so far as he could. Ling's 
style of work. His fame reached this country 
and the New Tork Clipper published, in its 
Letter Columns, an article stating that Ling 
Look was not dead, but was alive and working 
in England. His imitator had the nerve to 
stick to his story even when confronted by 
Kellar, but when the latter assured him that 
he had personally attended the burial of Ling, 
in Hong Kong, he broke down and confessed 
that he was a younger brother of the original 
Ling Look. 

Kellar later informed me that the resem- 
blance was so strong that had he not seen the 
original Ling Look consigned to the earth, he 
himself would have been duped into believing 
that this was the man who had been with him 
in Hong Kong. 

The Salambos were among the first to use 
electrical effects in a fire act, combining these 



88 HIBACLB-UONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

with the natural gas and "human volcano" 
Btunta of their predecessors, so that they were 
able to present an extremely spectacular per- 
formance without ha\'ing recourse to such un- 
pleasant features as had marred the effect of 
earlier fire acts. Bueno Core, too, deserves 
honorable mention for the cleanness and snap 
of his act ; and Del Kano should also be named 
among the cleverer performers. 

One of the best known of the modem fire- 
eaters was Bamello, who was a good business 
man as well, and kept steadily employed at 
a better salary than the rank and file of his 
contemporaries. He did a thriving business 
in the sale of the various concoctions used in 
his art, and published and sold a most com- 
plete book of formulas and general instruc- 
tions for those interested in the craft. He had, 
indeed, many irons in the fire, and he kept 
them all hot 

It will perhaps surprise the present genera- 
tion to learn that the well-known circus man 
Jacob Showles was once a fire-eater, and that 
Del Fugo, well-known in his day as a dancer 
in the music halls, began as a fire-resister, and 



MIEACLE-MONGEHS AND THEIR METHODS 89 

did his dance on hot iron plates. But the 
reader has two keener surprises in store for 
him before I close the long history of the heat- 
resisters. The first concerns our great Ameri- 
can tragedian Edwin Forrest (1806-1872) who, 
according to James Bees (Colley Gibber), once 
essayed a fire-resisting act. Forrest was al- 
ways fond of athletics and at one time made 
an engagement with the manager of a circus 
to appear as a tumbler and rider. The engage- 
ment was not fulfilled, however, as his friend 
Sol Smith induced him to break it and return 
to the legitimate stage. Smith afterwards ad- 
mitted to Gibber that if Forrest had remained 
with the circus he would have become one of 
the most daring riders and vaulters that ever 
appeared in the ring. 

His adventure in fire-resistance was on the 
occasion of the benefit to ' ' Charley Young, ' ' on 
which eventful night, as the last of his acro- 
batic feats, he made a fiying leap through a 
barrel of red fire, singeing his hair and eye- 
brows terribly. This particular leap through 
fire was the big sensation of those days, and 
Forrest evidently had a hankering to show his 



90 MIRACLE-MONGEBS AND THEIR METHODS 

friends that he could accomplish it — and he 
did. 

The second concerns an equally popular 
actor, a comedian this tune, the elder Sothem 
(1826-1881). On March 20, 1878, a writer in 
the Chicago Inter-Ocean conununicated to that 
paper the following curiously descriptive arti- 
cle: 

Is Mr. Sothem a medium f 

This is the question that fifteen puzzled 
investigators are asking themselves this 
morning, after witnessing a number of 
astoimding manifestations at a private 
seance given by Mr. Sothem last night. 

It lacked a few minutes of 12 when a 
number of Mr. Sothem 's friends, who had 
been given to understand that something 
remarkable was to be performed, assem- 
bled in the former's room at the Sherman 
House and took seats aroimd a marble-top 
table, which was placed in the center of 
the apartment. On the table were a niun- 
ber of glasses, two very large bottles, and 
five lemons. A sprightly young gentleman 
attempted to crack a joke about spirits be- 
ing confined in bottles, but the company 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 91 

frowned him down, and for once Mr. 
Sothern had a sober audience to begin 
with. 

There was a good deal of curiosily. re- 
garding the object of the gathering, but 
no one was able to explain. Each gentle- 
man testified to the fact Mr. Sothem's 
agent had waited upon him, and solicited 
his presence at a little esltibition to be 
given by the actor, not of a comical nature. 

Mr. Sothern himself soon after ap- 
peared, and, after shaking hands with the 
party, thus addressed them : 

"Gentlemen, I have invited you here 
ths evening to witness a few manifesta- 
tons, demonstrations, tests, or whatever 
you choose to call them, which I have acci- 
dentally discovered that I am able to per- 
form. 

"I am a fire-eater, as it were. (Ap- 
plause). 

"I used to dread the fire, having been 
scorched once when an innocent child. (A 
laugh.) 

Mr. Sothern (severely) — ^"I hope there 
will be no levity here, and I wish to say 
now that demonstrations of any kind are 
liable to upset mc, while demonstrations 



92 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

of a particular kind may upset the audi- 
ence/' 

Silence and decorum being restored, 
Mr. Sothem thus continued : 

^^ Thirteen weeks ago, while walking up 
Greenwich Street, in New York, I stepped 
into a store to buy a cigar. To show you 
there is no trick about it, here are cigars 
out of the same box from which I selected 
the one I that day lighted. '' (Here Mr. 
Sothem passed around a box of tolerable 
cigars.) 

"Well, I stepped to the little hanging 
gas-jet to light it, and, having done so, 
stood contemplatively holding the gas-jet 
and the cigar in either hand, thinking 
what a saving it would be to smoke a pipe, 
when, in my absent-mindedness, I dropped 
the cigar and put the gas-jet into my 
mouth. Strange as it may appear, I felt 
no pain, and stood there holding the thing 
in my mouth and puffing till the man in 
charge yelled out to me that I was swal- 
lowing his gas. Then I looked up, and, 
sure enough, there I was pulling away at 
the slender flame that came from the glass 
tube. 

"I dropped it instantly, and felt of my 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 98 



mouth, but noticed no inconvenience or 
unpleasant sensation whatever. 

" 'What do you mean by It?' said the 
proprietor. 

"As I didn't know what I meant by it 
I couldn't answer, so I picked up my cigar 
and went home. Once there I tried the 
experiment again, and in doing so I found 
that not only my mouth, but my hands and 
face, indeed, all of my body, was proof 
against fire. I called on a physician, and 
he examined me, and reported nothing 
wrong with my flesh, which appeared to be 
in normal condition. I said nothing about 
it publicly, but the fact greatly surprised 
me, and I have invited you here to-night 
to witness a few experiments." 

Saying this, Mr. Sothem, who had lit a 
cigar while pausing in his speech, turned 
the fire end into his mouth and sat down, 
smoking unconcernedly. 

"I suppose you wish to give us the fire- 
test," remarked one of the company. 

Mr. Sothern nodded. 

There was probably never a gathering 
more dumbfounded than that present in 
the room. A few questions were asked, 
and then five gentlemen were appointed to 



94 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

examine Mr. Sothem's hands, etc., before 
he began his experiments. Heaving thor- 
oughly washed the parts that he proposed 
to subject to the flames, Mr. Sothem be- 
gan by burning his arm, and passing it 
through the gas-jet very slowly, twice 
stopping the motion and holding it still in 
the flames. He then picked up a poker 
with a sort of hook on the end, and pro- 
ceeded to fish a small coil of wire from the 
grate. The wire came out fairly white 
with the heat. Mr. Sothem took the coil 
in his hands and cooly proceeded to wrap 
it roimd his left leg to the knee. Having 
done so, he stood on the table in the cen- 
ter of the circle and requested the com- 
mittee to examine the wrappings and the 
leg and report if both were there. The 
committee did so and reported in the 
affirmative. 

While this was going on, there was a 
smile, almost seraphic in its beauty, on 
Mr. Sothern^s face. 

After this an enormous hot iron, in the 
shape of a horseshoe, was placed on Mr. 
Sothem ^s body, where it cooled, without 
leaving a sign of a bum. 

As a final test, a tailor's goose was put 



MIHACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 95 

on the coals, and, after being thoroughly 
heated, was placed on Mr. Sothern's chair. 
The latter lighted a fresh cigar, and then 
coolly took a seat on the goose without the 
least seeming inconvenience. During the 
last experiment Mr. Sothem sang in an 
excellent tone and voice, "I'm Sitting on 
the Stile, Mary." 

The question now is, were the fifteen 
auditors of Mr. Sothem fooled and de- 
ceived, or was this a genuine manifesta- 
tion of extraordinary power ¥ Sothem is 
such an inveterate joker that he may have 
put the thing upon the boys for his own 
amusement; but if so, it was one of the 
nicest tricks ever witnessed by yours truly, 
ONE OF THE COMMITTEE. 

P. S. — What is equally marvellous to 
me is that the fire didn't burn his clothes 
where it touched them, any more than his 
flesh. P. C. 

(There is nothing new in this. Mr. 
Sothem has long been known as one of the 
most expert jugglers in the profession. 
Some years ago he gained the soubriquet 
of the "Fire King!" He frequently 
amuses his friends by eating fire, though 
he long ago ceased to give public exhibi- 



96 MIRACLE-MONGEBS AND THEIB METHODS 

tions. Probably the suooess of the experi- 
ments last night were largely owing to the 
lemons present There is a good deal of 
trickery in those same lemons. — ^Editor 
Inter-Ocean.) 

which suggests that the editor of the Inter- 
Ocean was either pretty well acquainted with 
the comedian's addiction to spoofing, or else 
less susceptible to sui>erstition than certain 
scientists of our generation. 

The great day of the Fire-eater — or, should 
I say, the day of the great Fire-eater— 4ias 
passed. No longer does fashion flock to his 
doors, nor science study his wonders, and he 
must now seek a following in the gaping 
loiterers of the circus side-show, the pmnpkin- 
and-prize-pig coimtry fair, or the tawdry 
booth at Coney Island. The credulous, won- 
der-loving scientist, however, still abides with 
us and, while his serious-minded brothers are 
wringing from Nature her jealously guarded 
secrets, the knowledge of which benefits all 
mankind, he gravely follows that periennial 
Will-of-the-wisp, spiritism, and lays the flat- 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 97 . 

tering unction to his soul that he is investigat- 
ing *^ psychic phenomena/' when in reality he 
is merely gazing with unseeing eyes on the 
flimsy juggling of pseudo-mediums. 



OHAPTEBSIX 

THE ARCANA OF THE FIRE-EATERS: THE 

FORMULA OF ALBERTUS MAGNUS. 

OF HOCUS POCUS. ^RICHARDSON'S 

METHOD. PHILOPYRAPHAGUS ASH- 

BURNIENSIS. TO BREATHE FORTH 

SPARKS, SMOKE, AND FLAMES. ^TO 

SPOUT NATURAL GAS. PROFESSOR SE- 

MENTINI'S DISCOVERIES. ^TO BITE OFF 

RED-HOT IRON. ^TO COOK IN A BURN- 
ING CAGE. CHABERT'S OVEN. ^TO 

EAT COALS OF FIRE. ^TO DRINK BURN' 

ING OIL. ^TO CHEW MOLTEN LEAD. 

TO CHEW BURNING BRIMSTONE. ^TO 

WREATHE THE FACE IN FLAMES. ^TO 

IGNITE PAPER WITH THE BREATH. ^TO 

DRINK BOILING UQUOR AND EAT FLAM- 
ING WAX. 

THE yellow thread of exposure seems to be 
inextricably woven into all fabrics whose 
strength is secrecy, and experience proves that 
it is much easier to become fireproof than to 
become exposure proof. It is still an open 
question, Bowever, as to what extent exposure 

08 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 99 

really injtires a performer. Exposure of the 
Becrets of the fire-eaters, for instance, dates 
back almost to the beginning of the art itself. 
The priests were exposed, Richardson was ex- 
posed, Powell was exposed and so on down the 
line ; but the business continued to prosper, the 
really clever performers drew quite fashion- 
able audiences for a long time, and it was prob- 
ably the demand for a higher form of enter- 
tainment, resulting from a refinement of the 
public taste, rather than the result of the many 
exposures, that finally relegated the Fire- 
eaters to the haunts of the proletariat. 

How the early priests came into possession of 
these secrets does not appear, and if there were 
ever any records of this Mnd the Church would 
hardly allow them to become public. That 
tfiey used practically the same system which 
has been adopted by all their followers is 
amply proved by the fact that after trial by 
ordeal had been abolished Albertus Magnus, in 
his work Be MirahUibus Mundi, at the end of 
his book De Secretis MvXierum, Amstelod, 
1702, made public the underlying principles of 
heat-resistance; namely, the use of certain 



100 MIBACLE-MONGEBS AND THEIR METHODS 

eompotinds which render the exposed x>art8 
to a more or less extent impervious to heal 
Many different formulas have been discovered 
which accomplish the purpose, but the prin- 
ciple remains unchanged. The formula set 
down by Albertus Magnus was probably the 
first ever made public: the following transla- 
tion of it is from the London Mirror: 

Take juice of marshmallow, and white 
of egg, fiea-bane seeds, and lime ; powder 
them and mix juice of radish with the 
white of egg ; mix all thoroughly and with 
this composition annoint your body or 
hand and allow it to dry and afterwards 
annoint it again, and after this you may 
boldly take up hot iron without hurt. 

^*8uch a paste, ^' says the correspondent to 
the Mirror, ** would indeed be very visible." 

Another early formula is given in the 1763 
(edition of Hocus Pocus. Examination of the 
different editions of this book in my library 
discloses the fact that there are no fire formu- 
las in the second edition, 1635, which is the 
earliest I have (first editions are very rare and 



MIRACLE-MONGEES AND THEIE METHODS lOl 

there is only one record of a sale of that edition 
at auction). From the fact that this formula 
was published during the time that Powell was 
appearing in England I gather that that cir- 
eumstanee may accoimt for its addition to the 
book. It does not appear in the German or 
Dutch editions. 
The following is an exact copy : 

HOW TO WALK ON A HOT IRON 
BAR WITHOUT ANT DANGER 
OP SCALDING OR BURNING. 

Take half an oxmce of samphire, dis- 
solve it in two ounces of aquffivitfe, add to 
it one ounce of quicksilver, one ounce of 
liquid storax, which is the droppings of 
Myrrh and hinders the camphire from 
firing ; take also two ounces of hematitus, 
a red stone to be had at the druggist's, and 
when you buy it let them beat it to powder 
in their great mortar, for it is so very hard 
that it cannot be done in a small one ; put 
this to the afore-mentioned composition, 
and when you intend to walk on the bar 
you must annoint your feet well therewith, 
and you may walk over without danger: 



108 MIRACLE-MONOEBS AND THEIR METHODS 

by this you may wash your hands in boil- 
ing lead 

This was the secret modus opercmdi made 
use of by Richardson, the first notably success- 
ful fire artist to appear in Europe, and it was 
disclosed by his servant/ 

Hone's Table Booh, London, 1827, page 315, 
gives Richardson's method as follows : 

It consisted only in rubbing the hands 
and thoroughly washing the mouth, lips, 
tongue, teeth and other parts which were 
to touch the fire, with pure spirits of sul- 
phur. This bums and cauterizes the epi- 
dermis or upper skin, till it becomes as 
hard and thick as leather, and each time 



^Such disloyalty in trusted Mrvants is one of the most 
disheartening things that can happen to a public performer. 
But it must not be thought that I say this out of personal 
experience: for in the many years that I have been before 
the public my secret methods have been steadily shielded 
by the strict integrity of my assistantSi most of whom have 
been with me for years. Only one man ever betrayed my 
confidence, and that only in a minor matter. But then, so 
far as I knoW| I am the only performer who ever pledged 
his assistants to secre<^, honor and allegiance under a notarial 
oath. 



MIBACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS lOS 

the experiment is tried it becomes still 
easier. But if, after it has been very often 
repeated the upper skin should grow so 
callous and hard as to become trouble- 
some, washing the parts affected with very 
warm water, or hot wine, will bring away 
all the shrivelled or parched epidermis. 
The flesh, however, will continue tender 
and unfit for such business till it has been 
frequently rubbed over with the same 
spirit. 

This preparation may be rendered much 
stronger and more efficacious by mixing 
equal quantities of spirit of sulphur, sal 
ammoniac, essence of rosemary and juice 
of onions. The bad effects which fre- 
quently swallowing red-hot coals, melted 
sealing wax, rosin, brimstone and other 
calcined and inflammable matter, might 
have had upon his stomach were pre- 
vented by drinking plentifully of warm 
water and oil, as soon as he left the com- 
pany, till he had vomited it all up again. 

This anecdote was communicated to the 
author of the Journal des Savants by Mr. Pan- 
thot, Doctor of Physics and Member of the 
College at Lyons. It appeared at the time 



104 MISACLE-MONGEBS AND THEIR METHODS 

Powell was showing his fire-eating stunts in 
London, and the correspondent naively added : 

Whether Mr. Powell will take it kindly 
of me thus to have published his secret I 
cannot tell; but as he now begins to drop 
into years, has no children that I know of 
and may die suddenly, or without making 
a will, I think it a great pity so genteel an 
occupation should become one of the artes 
perditae, as possibly it may, if proper care 
is not taken, and therefore hope, after this 
information, some true-hearted English- 
man will take it up again, for the honor of 
his country, when he reads in the news- 
papers, '' Yesterday, died, much lamented, 
the famous Mr. Powell. He was the best, 
if not the only, fire-eater in the world, and 
it is greatly to he feared that his art is 
dead with Mm.'' 

After a couple of columns more in a similar 
strain, the correspondent signs himself Philo- 
pyraphagus Ashhumiensis. 

In his History of Inventions, Vol. Ill, page 
272, 1817 edition, Beckmann thus describes the 
process : 



UlfiACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 105 

The deception of breathing out flames, 
which at present excites, in a particular 
manner, the astonishment of the ignorant, 
is very ancient. When the slaves in Sicily, 
about a century and a half before our era, 
made a formidable insurrection, and 
avenged themselves in a cruel manner, for 
the severities which they had suffered, 
there was amongst them a Syrian named 
Eunus — a man of great craft and courage ; 
who having passed through many scenes 
of life, had become acquainted with a 
variety of arts. He pretended to have im- 
mediate communication with the gods; 
was the oracle and leader of his fellow- 
slaves; and, as is usual on such occasions 
confirmed his divine mission by miracles. 
When heated by enthusiasm and desii'oua 
of inspiring his followers with courage, he 
breathed flames or sparks among them 
from his mouth while he was addressing 
them. We are told by historians that for 
this purpose he pierced a nut shell at both 
ends, and, having filled it with some burn- 
ing substance, put it into his mouth and 
breathed through it. This deception, at 
present, is performed much better. The 
juggler rolls together some flax or hemp, 



106 MISACLE-MONOEBS AND THEIR METHODS 

80 as to form a ball about the size of a wal- 
nut; sets it on fire; and suffers it to bum 
imtil it is nearly consumed; he then rolls 
round it, while burning, some more flax; 
and by these means the fire may be re- 
tained in it for a long time. When he 
wishes to exhibit he slips the ball unper- 
ceived into his mouth, and breathes 
through it; which again revives the fire, 
so that a number of weak sparks proceed 
from it; and the performer sustains no 
hurt, provided he inspire the air not 
through the mouth, but the nostrils. By 
this art the Rabbi Bar-Cocheba, in the 
reign of the Emperor Hadrian, made the 
credulous Jews believe that he was the 
hoped-for Messiah; and two centuries 
after, the Emperor Constantius was 
thrown into great terror when Valen- 
tinian informed him that he had seen one 
of the body-guards breathing out fire and 
flames in tiie evening. 

Since Beckmann wrote, the method of pro- 
ducing smoke and sparks from the mouth has 
been still further improved. The flre can now 
be produced in various ways. One way is by 
the use of a piece of thick cotton string which 



MIEACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 107 

has been soaked in a solution of nitre and then 
thoroughly dried. This string, when once 
lighted, bums very slowly and a piece one inch 
long is sufficient for the purpose. Some per- 
formers prefer a small piece of punk, as it re- 
quires no preparation. Still others use tinder 
made by burning linen rags, as our forefathers 
used to do. This will not flame, but merely 
smoulders imtil the breath blows it into a glow. 
The tinder is made by charring linen rags, that 
is, burning them to a crisp, but stopping the 
combustion before they are reduced to ashes. 

Flames from the lips may be produced by 
holding in the mouth a sponge saturated with 
the purest gasoline. WTien the breath is ex- 
haled sharply it can be lighted from a torch 
or a candle. Closing the lips firmly will ex- 
tinguish the flame. A wad of oakimi will give 
better results than the sponge. 

Natural gas is produced as simply. A T- 
shaped gas pipe has three or four gas tips on 
the cross-piece. The long end is placed in the 
mouth, which already holds concealed a 
sponge, or preferably a ball of oakum, satu- 
rated with pure gasoline. Blowing through 



108 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

the pipe will force the gas through the tips, 
where it can be ignited with a match. It will 
bum as long as the breath lasts. 

In a London periodical, The Terrific Record, 
appears a reprint from the Mercure de France, 
giving an account of experiments in Naples 
which led to the discovery of the means by 
which jugglers have appeared to he incombus- 
tible. They first gradually habituate the skin, 
the mouth, throat and stomach to great degrees 
of heat, then they rub the skin with hard soap. 
The tongue is also covered with hard soap and 
over that a layer of powdered sugar. By this 
means an investigating professor was enabled 
to reproduce the wonders which had puzzled 
many scientists. 

The investigating professor in all probabil- 
ity, was Professor Sementini, who experi- 
mented with Lionetto. I find an account of 
Sementini's discoveries in an old newspaper 
clipping, the name and date of which have un- 
fortunately been lost : 

Sementini's efforts, after performing 
several experiments upon himself, were 





MIRACLE-MONGEES AND THEIR METHODS 109 

finally crowned with success. He found 
that by friction with sulphuric acid de- 
luted with water, the skin might be made 
insensible to the action of the heat of red- 
hot iron; a solution of almn, evaporated 
till it became spongy, appeared to be more 
effectual in these frictions. After having 
rubbed the pai-ts which were thus ren- 
dered in some degree insensible, with hard 
soap, he discovered, on the application of 
hot iron, that their insensibility was in- 
creased. He then determined on again 
rubbing the parts with soap, and after 
that found that the hot iron not only oc- 
casioned no pain but that it actually did 
not burn the hair. 

Being thus far satisfied, the Professor 
applied hard soap to his tongue until it 
became insensible to the heat of the iron ; 
and having placed an ointment composed 
of soap. mixed with a solution of alum 
upon it, burning oil did not burn it ; while 
the oil remained on the tongue a slight 
hissing was heard, similar to that of hot 
iron when thrust into water ; the oil soon 
cooled and might then be swallowed with- 
out danger. 

Several scientific men have since re- 






110 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

peated the experiments of Professor 
Sementini, but we would not recommend 
any except professionals to try the experi- 
ments. 

Liquid storax is now used to anoint the 
tongue when red-hot irons are to be placed 
in the mouth. It is claimed that with this 
alone a red-hot poker can be licked until it 
is cold. 

Another formula is given by Griffin, as 
follows: 1 bar ivory soap, cut fine, 1 
pound of brown sugar, 2 ounces liquid 
storax (not the gum). Dissolve in hot 
water and add a wine-glassful of carbolic 
acid. This is rubbed on aU parts liable 
to come in contact with the hot articles. 
After anointing the mouth with this solu- 
tion rinse with strong vinegar. 

No performer should attempt to bite off red- 
hot iron unless he has a good set of teeth. A 
piece of hoop iron may be prepared by bending 
it back and forth at a point about one inch 
from the end, until the fragment is nearly 
broken off, or by cutting nearly through it 
with a cold chisel. When the iron has been 
heated red-hot, the prepared end is taken be- 



MIEACLE-MONGERS AND THEIE METHODS 111 

tween the teeth, a couple of benoB will com- 
plete the break. The piece which drops from 
the teeth into a tl'sh of water wll make a puff 
of steam and a hissing sound, which will dem- 
onstrate that it is still very hot. 

The mystery of the burning cage, in which 
the Fire King remains while a steak is thor- 
oughly cooked, is explained by BameUo as fol- 
lows: 

Have a large iron cage constructed 
about 4x6 feet, the bottom made of heavy 
sheet iron. The cage should stand on iron 
legs or horses. Wrap each of the bars of 
the cage with cotton batting saturated 
with oil. Now take a raw beefsteak in 
your hand and enter the cage, which is now 
set on fire. Remain in the cage until the 
fire has burned out, then issue from the 
cage with the steak burned to a crisp. 

Explanation: On entering the cage the 
performer places the steak on a large iron 
hook which is fastened in one of the upper 
comers. The dress worn is of asbestos 
cloth with a hood that completely covers 
the head and neck. There is a small hole 
over the mouth through which he breathes. 



lis MIBACLE-MON6BBS AND THEIB METHODS 

As soon as the fire starts the smoke and 
flames oompletety hide the performer 
from the spectators, and he immediately 
lies down on the bottom of the cage, plac- 
ing the month over one of the small air 
holes in the floor of the same. 

Heat always goes np and will soon cook 
the steak. 

I dednce from the above that the performer 
arises and recovers the steak when the fire 
slackens but idiile there is still sufident flame 
and smoke to mask his action. 

It is obvious that the above explanation 
covers the baker's oven mystery as well. In 
the case of the oven, however, the inmate is 
concealed from start to finish, and this gives 
him much greater latitude for his actions. M. 
Ohabert made the oven the big feature of his 
programme and succeeded in puzzling many of 
the best informed scientists of his day. 

Eating coals of fire has always been one of 
the sensational feats of the Fire Kings, as it 
is quite generally known that charcoal bums 
with an extremely intense heat. This fervent 
lunch, however, like many of the feasts of the 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 118 

Fire Kings, is produced by trick methods. 
Mixed with the charcoal in the brazier are a 
few coals of soft white pine, which when burnt 
look exactly like charcoal. These will not bum 
the mouth as charcoal will. They should be 
picked up with a fork which will penetrate the 
pine coals, but not the charcoal, the latter be- 
ing brittle. 

Another method of eating burning coals em- 
ploys small balls of burned cotton in a dish of 
burning alcohol. When lifted on the fork 
these have the appearance of charcoal, but are 
harmless if the mouth be immediately closed, 
so that the flame is extinguished. 

In all feats of fire-eatiug it should be noted 
that the head is thrown well back, so that the 
flame may pass out of the open mouth instead 
of up into the roof, as it would if the head were 
held naturally. 

To drink burning oil set fire to a small quan- 
tity of kerosene in a ladle. Into this dip an 
iron spoon and bring it up to all appearance, 
filled with burning oil, though in reality the 
spoon is merely wet with the oil. It is carried 
blazing to the mouth, where it is tipped, as if to 



114 MISACLE-MONGEBS AND THEIR METHODS 

pour the oil into the mouthy just as a puff of 
breath blows out all the flame. The process is 
continued until all the oil in the ladle has been 
consumed ; then the ladle is turned bottom up, 
in order to show that all the oil has been drunk. 
A method of drinking what seems to be 
molten lead is given in the Chambers' Book of 
Days, 1863, VoL II, page 278 : 

The performer taking an iron spoon, 
holds it up to the spectators, to show that 
it is empty; then, dipping it into a pot 
containing melted lead, he again shows it 
to the spectators full of the molten metal ; 
then, after putting the spoon in his mouth, 
he once more shows it to be empty; and 
after compressing his lips, with a look ex- 
pressive of pain, he, in a few moments, 
ejects from his mouth a piece of lead im- 
pressed with the exact form of his teeth. 
Ask a spectator what he saw, and he will 
say that the performer took a spoonful of 
molten lead, placed it in his mouth, and 
soon afterwards showed it in a solid state, 
bearing the exact form and impression of 
his teeth. If deception be insinuated, the 
spectator will say. **No! Having the 



MIEACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 115 

evidence of my, senses, I cannot be de- 
ceived ; if it had been a matter of opinion 
I might, but seeing, you know, is believ- 
ing." Now the piece of lead, cast from a 
plaster mould of the performer's teeth, 
has probably officiated in a thousand pre- 
vious perforraances, and is placed in the 
mouth between the gum and the cheek, 
just before the trick commences. The 
spoon is made with a hoUow handle con- 
taining quicksilver, which, by a simple 
motion, can be let rim into the bowl, or 
back again into the handle at will. 

The spoon is first shown with the quick- 
silver concealed in the handle, the bowl is 
then dipped just within the rim of the pot 
containing the molten lead, but not into 
the lead itself, and, at the same instant the 
quicksilver is allowed to run into the bowl. 
The spoon is then shown with the quick- 
silver (wliich the audience takes to be the 
melted lead) in the bowl, and when placed 
in the mouth, the quicksilver is again al- 
lowed to run into the handle. 

The performer, in fact, takes a spoonful 
of nothing, and soon after exhibits the 
lead bearing the impression of the teeth. 



110 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

Molten lead, for fire-eatmg purposes, is 
made as follows : 

Bismuth 5 oz. 

Lead 3 oz. 

Block tin 2 oz. 

Melt these together. When the metal has 
cooled, a piece the size of a silver quarter can 
be melted and taken into the mouth and held 
there until it hardens. This alloy will melt in 
boiling water. Robert-Houdin calls it Arcet's 
metal, but I cannot find the name elsewhere. 

The eating of burning brimstone is an en- 
tirely fake performance. A number of small 
pieces of brimstone are shown, and then 
wrapped in cotton which has been saturated 
with a half-and-half mixture of kerosene and 
gasoline, the surplus oil having been squeezed 
out so there shall be no drip. When these are 
lighted they may be held in the palm of any 
hand which has been anointed with one of the 
fire mixtures described in this chapter. Then 
throw back the head, place the burning ball in 
the mouth, and a freshly extinguished candle 
can be lighted from the fiame. Close the lips 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 117 

firmly, which will extinguish the flame, then 
chew and pretend to swallow the brimstone, 
which can afterwards be removed under cover 
of a handkerchief. 

Observe that the brimstone has not been 
burned at all, and that the cotton protects the 
teeth. To add to the effect, a small piece of 
brimstone may be dropped into the furnace, a 
very small piece will suf&ee to convince all that 
it is the genuine article that is being eaten. 

To cause the face to appear in a mass of 
flame make use of the following : mis together 
thoroughly petroleum, lard, mutton tallow and 
quick lime. Distill this over a charcoal flre, 
and the liquid which results can be burned on 
the face vrithout harm.' 

To set paper on fire by blowing upon it, 
small pieces of wet phosphorus are taken into 
the mouth, and a sheet of tissue paper is held 
about a foot from the lips. While the paper 
is being blown upon the phosphorus is ejected 
on it, although this passes unnoticed by the 
spectators, and as soon as the continued blow- 

* Barnello'e Red Demon. 



118 MIBACLE-MONGEBS AND THEIE METHODS 

ing has dried the phosphorus it will ignite the 
paper. 

Drinking boiling liquor is accomplished by 
using a cup with a false bottom, under which 
the liquor is retained. 

A solution of spermaceti in sulphuric ether 
tinged with alkanet root, which solidifies at 
50° F., and melts and boils with the heat of 
the hand, is described in Beckmann's History 
of Inventions, Vol. II., page 121. 

Dennison's No. 2 sealing wax may be melted 
in the flame of a candle and, while still blazing, 
dropped upon the tongue without causing a 
burn, as the moisture of the tongue instantly 
cools it. Care must be used, however, that 
none touches the hands or lips. It can be 
chewed, and apparently swallowed, but re- 
moved in the handkerchief while wiping the 
lips. 

The above is the method practiced by all the 
Fire-Eaters, and absolutely no preparation is 
necessary except that the tongue must be well 
moistened with saliva, 

Bamello once said, "A person wishing to 
become a Fire-£ater must make up his or her 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIH METHODS 119 

mind to suffer a little at first from bums, as 
there is no one who works at the business but 
that gets burns either from carelessness or 
from accident." 

This is verified by the following, which I 
clip from the London Globe of August 11th, 
1880: 

Accident to a Fire-Eater. A corre- 
spondent telegraphs : A terrible scene was 
witnessed in the market place, Leightou 
Buzzard, yesterday. A travelling Negro 
fire eater was performing on a stand, lick- 
ing red-hot iron, bending heated pokers 
with his naked foot, burning tow in his 
mouth, and the like. At last he filled his 
mouth with benzolene, saying that he 
would bum it as he allowed it to escape. 
He had no sooner applied a lighted match 
to his lips than the whole mouthful of spirit 
took fire and before it was consumed the 
man was burned in a frightful manner, 
the blazing spirit running all over his 
face, neck and chest as he dashed from his 
stand and raced about like a madman 
among the assembled crowd, tearing his 
clothing from him and howling in most 
intense agony. A portion of the spirit was 



180 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

swallowed and the inside of his mouth was 
also terribly burnt. He was taken into a 
chemist's shop and oils were administered 
and applied, but afterwards in agonizing 
frenzy he escaped in a state almost of 
nudity from a lodging house and was cap- 
tured by the police and taken to the work- 
house infirmary, where he remains in a 
dreadful condition. 

Bemember! Always have a large blanket at 
hand to smother flames in burning clothing — 
also a bucket of water and a quantity of sand. 
A siphon of carbonic water is an excellent fire 
extinguisher. 

The gas of gasoline is heavier than air, so 
a container should never be held above a fiame. 
Keep kerosene and gasoline containers well 
corked and at a distance from fire. 

Never inhale breath while performing with 
fire. Flame drawn into the lungs is fatal to 
life. 

So much for the entertaining side of the art. 
There are, however, some further scientific 
principles so interesting that I reserve them 
for another chapter. 



CHAPTER SEVEN 

THE SPHEROIDAL CONDITION OF UQUID& 

^WHY THE HAND MAY BE DIPPED IN 

MOLTEN METALS- PRINaPLES OF 

HEAT-RESISTANCE PUT TO PRACTICAL 
USES: ALDINI, 1829. ^IN EARLY FIRE- 
FIGHTING. ^TEMPERATURES THE BODY 

CAN ENDURE. 



THE spheroidal condition of liquids was 
covered by Leidenfrost, but M. Boutigny 
was the first to give this singular subject careful 
investigation. Prom time out of mind the test 
of letting a drop of water fall on the face of 
a hot flat-iron has been employed to discover 
whether it may safely be used. Everybody 
knows that if it is not too hot the water will 
spread over the surface and evaporate ; but if 
it is too hot, the water wDl glance off without 
wetting the iron, and if this drop be allowed 
to fall on the hand it will be found that it is 
still cool. The fact is that the water never 

121 



1S3 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIfi METHODS 

touches the hot iron at all, provided, the heat 
is sufficiently intense, but assumes a slightly 
elliptical shape and is supported by a cushion 
of vapor. If, instead of a flat-iron, we use a 
concave metal disk aljout the size and shape 
of a watch crystal, some very interesting re- 
sults may be obtained. If the temperature of 
the disk is at, or slightly above, the boiling 
point, water dropped on it from a medicine 
dropper will boil ; but if the disk is heated to 
340° F., the drop practically retains its round- 
ness — becoming only slightly oblate — and does 
not boil. In fact the temperature never rises 
above 206° F., since the vapor is so rapidly 
evaporated from the surface of the drop that 
it forms the cushion just mentioned. By a 
careful manipulation of the dropper, the disk 
may be fiUed with water which, notwithstand- 
ing the intense heat, never reaches the boiling 
point. On the other hand, if boiling water be 
dropped on the superheated disk its tempera- 
ture will immediately be reduced to six de- 
grees below the boiling point j thus the hot 
metal really cools the water. 
By taking advantage of the fact that dif- 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 128 

ferent liquids assume a spheroidal form at 
widely different temperatures, one may obtain 
some startling results. For example, liquid 
sulphurous acid is so volatile as to have a tem- 
perature of only 13° F. when in that state, 
or 19° below the freezing point of water, so 
that if a little water be dropped into the aeid, 
it will immediately freeze and the pellet of 
ice may be dropped into the hand from the 
still red-hot disk. Even mercury can be frozen 
in this way by a combination of chemicals. 

Through the action of this principle it is 
possible to dip the hand for a short time into 
melted lead, or even into melted copper, the 
moisture of the skin supplying a vapor which 
prevents direct contact with the molten metal ; 
no more than an endurable degree of heat 
reaches the hand while the moisture lasts, al- 
though the temperature of the fusing copper 
is 1996". The natural moisture of the hand 
is usually sufiScient for this result, but it is 
better to wipe the hand with a damp towel. 

In David A. Wells' Things not Generally 
Known, New York, 1857, I find a translation 
of an article by M. Boutigny in The Comptes 



IM MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

Bendtis, in which he notes that "the portion 
of the hands which are not immersed in the 
fused metal, but are exposed to the action of 
the heat radiated from its surface, experience 
a painful sensation of heat" He adds that 
when the hand was dampened with ether 
"there was no sensation of heat, but, on the 
contrary, an agreeable feeling of coolness." 

Beckmann, in his History of Inventions, 
Vol. II., page 122, says: 

In the month of September, 1765, when 
I visited the copper works at Awested, 
one of the workmen, for a little drink 
money, took some of the melted copper in 
his hand, and after showing it to us, threw 
it against the wall. He then squeezed the 
fingers of his homy hand close together, 
put it for a few minutes under his armpit, 
to make it sweat, as he said ; and, taking 
it again out, drew it over a ladle filled with 
melted copper, some of which he skimmed 
off, and moved his hand backwards and 
forwards, very quickly, by way of ostenta- 
tion. 

While I was viewing this performance, 
I remarked a smell like that of singed 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 125 

horn or leather, though his haaid was not 
burnt. 

The workmen at the Swedish melting- 
house showed the same thing to some 
travellers in the seventeenth century ; for 
Regnard saw it in 1681, at the copper- 
works in Lapland. 

My friend Quincy Kilby, of Brookline, 
Mass., saw the same stunt performed by work- 
men at the Meridan Brittania Company's 
plant. They told him that if the hand had 
been wet it would have been badly scalded. 

Thus far our interest in heat-resistance has 
uncovered secrets of no very great practical 
value, however entertaining the uses to which 
we have seen them put. But not all the in- 
vestigation of these principles has been dic- 
tated by considerations of curiosity and enter- 
tainment. As long ago as 1829, for instance, 
an English newspaper printed the following: 

Proof against Fire — On Tuesday week 
an experiment was made in presence of 
a Committee of the Academy of Sciences 
at Paris, by M. Aldini, for the purpose of 
showing that he can secure the body 



IM MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

against the action of flames so as to enable 
firemen to cany on their operations with 
safety. His experiment is stated to have 
given satisfaction. The pompiers were 
clothed in asbestos, over which was a net- 
work of iron. Some of them, it was stated, 
who wore double gloves of amianthus, held 
a red-hot bar during four minutes. 

Sir David Brewster, in his Letters on Nat- 
ural Magic, page 305, gives a more detailed 
account of Aldini, from which the natural de- 
duction is that the Chevalier was a showman 
with an intellect fully up to the demands of 
his art Sir David says : 

In our own times the art of defending 
the hands and face, and indeed the whole 
body, from the action of heated iron and 
intense fire, has been applied to the nobler 
purpose of saving human life, and rescu- 
ing property from the flames. The revival 
and the improvement of this art we owe 
to the benevolence and the ingenuity of 
the Chevalier Aldini of Milan, who has 
travelled through all Europe to present 
this valuable gift to his species. Sir H. 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 187 

Davy had long ago shown that a safety 
lamp for illuminating mines, containing 
inflammable air, might be constructed of 
wire-gauze, alone, which prevented the 
flame within, however large or intense, 
from setting fire to the inflammable air 
without. This valuable property, which 
has been long in practical use, he ascribed 
to the conducting and radiating power of 
the wire-gauze, which carried off the heat 
of the flame, and deprived it of its power. 
The Chevalier Aldini conceived the idea of 
applying the same material, in combina- 
tion with other badly conducting sub- 
stances, as a protection against fire. The 
incombustible pieces of dress which he 
uses for the body, arms, and legs, are 
formed out of strong cloth, which has been 
steeped in a solution of aliun, while those 
for the head, hands, and feet, are made 
of cloth of asbestos or amianthus. The 
head dress is a large cap which envelops 
the whole head down to the neck, having 
suitable perforations for the eyes, nose, 
and mouth. The stockings and cap are 
single, but the gloves are made of double 
amianthus cloth, to enable the fireman to 
take into his hand burning or red-hot 



128 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

bodies. The piece of ancient asbestos 
cloth preserved in the Vatican was formed, 
we believe, by mixing the asbestos with 
other fibrous substances; but M. Aldini 
has executed a piece of nearly the same 
size, 9 feet 5 inches long, and 5 feet 
3 inches wide, which is much stronger 
than the ancient piece, and possesses 
superior qualities, in consequence of 
having been woven without the iatro- 
duction of any foreign substance. In this 
manufacture the fibers are prevented 
from breaking by action of steam, the 
doth is made loose in its fabric, and the 
threads are about the fiftieth of an inch 
in diameter. 

The metallic dress which is superadded 
to these means of defence consists of five 
principal pieces, viz., a casque or cap, with 
a mask large enough to leave a proper 
space between it and the asbestos cap; a 
cuirass with its brassets ; a piece of armour 
for the trunk and thighs ; a pair of boots 
of double wire-gauze; and an oval shield 
5 feet long by 2^ feet wide, made by 
stretching the wire-gauze over a slender 
frame of iron. All these pieces are made 
of iron wire-gauze, having the interval be- 



MIBACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS ISB 

tween its threads the twenty-fifth part of 
an inch. 

In order to prove the efficacy of this 
apparatus, and inspire the firemen with 
confidence in its protection, he showed 
them that a finger first enveloped in 
asbestos, and then in a double case of wire- 
gauze, might be held a long time in the 
flame of a spirit-lamp or candle before the 
heat became inconvenient. A fireman hav- 
ing his hand within a double asbestos 
glove, and its pahn protected by a piece of 
asbestos cloth, seized with impunity a 
large piece of red hot iron, carried it de- 
liberately to the distance of 150 feet, in- 
flamed straw with it, and brought it back 
again to the furnace. On other occasions 
the fireman handled blazing wood and 
burning substances, and walked during 
five minutes upon an iron grating placed 
over flaming fagots. 

In order to show haw the head, eyes, and 
lungs are protected, the fireman put on 
the asbestos and wire-gauze cap, and the 
cuirass, and held the shield before his 
breast. A fire of shavings was then lighted, 
and kept burning in a large raised chafing- 
dish ; the fireman plunged his head into the 



180 MIAACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 



middle of the flames with his face to the 
fuel, and in that position went several 
times round the chafing-dish for a period 
longer than a minute. In a subsequent 
trial, at Paris, a fireman placed his head 
in the middle of a large brazier filled with 
flaming hay and wood, and resisted the 
action of the fire during five or sis min- 
utes and even ten minutes. 

In the experiments which were made at 
Paris in the presence of a committee of 
the Academy of Sciences, two parallel 
rows of straw and brushwood supported 
by iron wires, were formed at the dis- 
tance of 3 feet from each other, and 
extended 30 feet in length. When this 
combustible mass was set on fire, it was 
necessary to stand at a distance of 8 
or 10 yards to avoid the heat. The flames 
from both the rows seemed to fill up the 
whole space between them, and rose to 
the height of 9 or 10 feet. At this mo- 
ment six firemen, clothed in the incom- 
bustible dresses, and marching at a slow 
pace behind each other, repeatedly passed 
through the whole length between the two 
rows of flame, which were constantly fed 
with additional combustibles. One of the 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 181 

firemen carried on his back a child eight 
years old, in a wieker-basket covered with 
metallic gauze, and the child had no other 
dress than a cap made of amianthine cloth. 

In February, 1829, a stUi more striking 
experiment was made in the yard of the 
barracks of St. Gervais. Two towers were 
erected two stories high, and were sur- 
rounded with heaps of inflamed materials, 
consisting of fagots and straw. The fire- 
men braved the danger with impunity. In 
opposition to the advice of M. Aldini, one 
of them, with the basket and child, rushed 
into a narrow place, where the flames were 
raging 8 yards high. The violence of 
the fire was so great that he could not be 
seen, while a thick black smoke spread 
around, throwing out a heat which was xm- 
supportable by spectators. The fireman 
remained so long invisible that serious 
doubts were entertained of his safety. He 
at length, however, issued from the fiery 
gulf iminjured, and proud of having suc- 
ceeded in braving so great a danger. 

It is a remarkable result of these ex- 
periments, that the firemen are able to 
breathe without difficulty in the middle of 
Hxp. flames. This effect is owing not only 



I8S MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

to the heat being intercepted by the wire- 
gauze as it passes to the lungs, in conse- 
quence of which its temperature becomes 
supportable, but also to the singular power 
which the body possesses of resisting great 
heats, and of breathing air of high tem- 
peratures. ■ 

A series of curious experiments were 
made on this subject by M. Tillet, in 
France, and by Dr. Fordyce and Sir 
Charles Blagden, in England. Sir Joseph 
Banks, Dr. Solander, and Sir Charles 
Blagden entered a room in which the air 
had a temperature of 198° Fahr., and re- 
mained ten minutes ; but as the thermom- 
eter sunk very rapidly, they resolved to 
enter the room singly. Dr. Solander went 
in alone and found the heat 210°, and Sir 
Joseph entered when the heat was 211°. 
Though exposed to such an elevated tem- 
perature, their bodies preserved their 
natural degree of heat. Whenever they 
breathed upon a thermometer it sunk 
several degrees ; every expiration, particu- 
larly if strongly made, gave a pleasant 
impression of coolness to their nostrils, 
and their cold breath cooled their fingers 
whenever it reached them. On touching 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 188 



his side, Sir Charles Blagden found it cold 
like a corpse, and yet the heat of his body 
under his tongue was 98°. Hence they con- 
cluded that the human body possesses the 
power of destroying a certain degree of 
heat when communicated with a certain 
degree of quickness. This power, how- 
ever, varies greatly in different media. 
The same person who experienced no in- 
convenience from air heated to 211°, could 
just bear rectified spirits of wine at 130°, 
cooling oil at 129°, cooling water at 123°, 
and cooling quicksilver at 118°. A familiar 
instance of this occxxrred in the heated 
room. All the pieces of metal there, even 
their watch-chains, felt so hot that they 
could scarcely bear to touch them for a 
moment, while the air from which the 
metal had derived all its heat was only 
unpleasant. M. Duhamel and Tillet ob- 
served, at Rochefoucault in Prance, that 
the girls who were accustomed to attend 
ovens in a bakehouse, were capable of en- 
during for ten minutes a temperature of 
270°. 

The same gentleman who performed the 
experiments above described ventured to 
expose themselves to still higher tempera- 



IM MIBACLE-MONGEB8 AND THEIR METHODS 

tares. Sir GharleB Blagden went into a 
room when ^be heat was l"" or 2'' above 
aw, and remained eight minutes in tiiis 
aituationy frequently walldng about to all 
the different parts of the room, but stand- 
ing still most of the time in the coolest spot, 
where the heat was above SM"". The air, 
though very hot, gave no pain, and Sir 
Charles and all ilie other gentlemen were 
of opinion that they could support a much 
greater heat During seven minutes Sir 
0. Blagden's breathing continued per- 
fectly good, but after that time he felt an 
oppression in his lungs, with a sense of 
anxiety, which induced him to leave the 
roouL His pulse was then 144, double its 
ordinary quickness. In order to prove 
that there was no mistake respecting the 
degree of heat indicated by the thermom- 
eter, and that the air which they breathed 
was capable of producing all the well- 
known effects of such a heat on inanimate 
matter, they placed some eggs and a beef- 
steak upon a tin frame near the thermom- 
eter, but more distant from the furnace 
than from the wall of the room. In the 
space of twenty minutes the eggs were 
roasted quite hard, and in forty-seven 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIB METHODS 1«« 

minutes the steak was not only dressed, 
but almost dry. Another beef -steak, simi- 
larly placed, was rather overdone in 
thirty-three minutes. In the evening, 
when the heat was still more elevated, a 
third beef-steak was laid in the same 
place, and as they had noticed that the 
effect of the hot air was greatly increased 
by putting it in motion, they blew upon 
the steak with a pair of bellows, and thus 
hastened the dressing of it to such a de- 
gree, that the greatest portion of it was 
found to be pretty well done in thirteen 
minutes. 

Our distinguished countryman, Sir F. 
Chantrey, has very recently exposed him- 
self to a temperature still higher than any 
which we have mentioned. The furnace 
which he employs for drying his moulds 
is about 14 feet long, 12 feet high, and 
12 feet broad. "When it is raised to its 
highest temperature, with the doors closed, 
the thermometer stands at 350°, and the 
iron floor is red hot. The workmen often 
enter it at a temperature of 340°, walking 
over the iron floor with wooden clogs, 
which are of course charred on the sur- 
face. On one occasion Sir F. Chantrey, 



186 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

accompanied by five or six of his friends, 
entered the furnace, and, after remaining 
two minutes, they brought out a thermom- 
eter which stood at 320®. Some of the 
party experienced sharp pains in the tips 
of their ears, and in the septum of the 
nose, while others felt a pain in their eyes. 



CHAPTER EIGHT 

SWORD-SWALLOWERS : CLIQUOT, DELNO 
FRITZ, DEODATA, A RAZOR-SWALLOWER, 
AN UMBRELLA-SWALLOWER, WILLIAM 
DEMPSTER, JOHN GUMMING, EDITH GLIF- 
FORD, VIGTORINA. 

IT has sometimes been noted in the forego- 
ing pages, that fire-eaters, finding it dif- 
ficult to invent new effects in their own sphere, 
have strayed into other fields of endeavor in 
order to amplify their programmes. Thus we 
find them resorting to the allied arts of poison- 
eating, sword-swallowing and the stunts of the 
so-called Human Ostrich. 

In this connection I consider it not out of 
place for me to include a description of a num- 
ber of those who have, either through unusual 
gifts of nature or through clever artifice, seem- 
ingly submitted to tests which we have been 
taught to believe were far and away beyond 
the outposts of human endurance. By the in- 

137 



188 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

troduction of these thrills each notable new- 
comer has endeavored to go his predecessors 
one better, and the issue of challenges to all 
comers to match these startling effects has 
been by no means infrequent, but I fail to dis- 
cover a single acceptance of such a challenge. 

To accomplish the sword-swallowing feat, 
it is only necessary to overcome the nausea 
that results from the metaPs touching the 
mucous membrane of the pharynx, for there 
is an unobstructed passage, large enough to 
accommodate several of the thin blades used, 
from the mouth to the bottom of the stomach. 
This passage is not straight, but the passing 
of the sword straightens it. Some throats are 
more sensitive than others, but practice will 
soon accustom any throat to the passage of 
the blade. When a sword with a sharp point 
is used the performer secretly slips a rubber 
cap over the point to guard against accident. 

It is said that the medical fraternity first 
learned of the possibility of overcoming the 
sensitiveness of the pharynx by investigating 
the methods of the sword-swallowers. 

Cliquot, who was one of the most prominent 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS U» 

sword-swallowers of his time, finally "re- 
formed" and is now a music hall agent in Eng- 
land. The Strtmd Magazine (1896) has this 
to say of Cliquot and his art : 

The Chevalier Cliquot (these fellows 
must have titles) in the act of swallowing 
the major part of a cavalry sword 22 
inches long. 

Cliquot, whose name suggests the swal- 
lowing of something much more grateful 
and comforting than steel swords, is a 
French Canadian by birth, and has been 
the admitted chief in his profession for 
more than 18 years. He ran away from 
his home in Quebec at an early age, and 
joined a travelling circus boxmd for South 
America. On seeing an arrant old hum- 
bug swallow a small machete, in Buenos 
Ayres, the boy took a fancy to the per- 
formance, and approached the old hum- 
bug aforesaid with the view of being 
taught the business. Not having any 
money, however, wherewith to pay the 
necessary premimn, the overtures of the 
would-be apprentice were repulsed ; where- 
upon he set about experimenting with his 
own aesophagus with a piece of silver wire. 



140 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

To say the preliminary training for this 
sort of thing is painful, is to state the 
fact most moderately ; and even when stem 
purpose has triumphed over the laws of 
anatomy, terrible danger still remains. 

On one occasion having swallowed a 
sword, and then bent his body in different 
directions, as an adventurous sensation, 
Oliquot found that the weapon also had 
bent to a sharp angle; and quick as 
thought, realizing his own position as well 
as that of the sword, he whipped it out, 
tearing his throat in a dreadful manner. 
Plainly, had the upper part of the weapon 
become detached, the sword swallower's 
career must infallibly have come to an 
untimely end. Again, in New York, when 
swallowing 14 nine-inch bayonet swords 
at once, Cliquot had the misfortune to 
have a too sceptical audience, one of whom, 
a medical man who ought to have known 
better, rushed forward and impulsively 
dragged out the whole bunch, inflicting 
such injuries upon this peculiar enter- 
tainer as to endanger his life, and inca- 
pacitate him for months. 

In one of his acts Cliquot swallows a 
real bayonet sword, weighted with a cross- 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 1*1 

bar, and two 18-lb. dumb bells. In order 
to vary this performance, the sword-swal- 
lower allows only a part of the weapon to 
pass into his body, the remainder being 
"kicked" down by the recoil o" a rifle, 
which is fixed to a spike in the centre of 
the bar, and fired by the performer's 
sister. 

The last act in this extraordinary per- 
formance is the swallowing of a gold 
watch. As a ride, Oliquot borrows one, 
but as no timepiece was forthcoming at 
the private exhibition where I saw him, he 
proceeded to lower his own big chro- 
nometer into his Eesophagus by a slender 
goFd chain. Many of the most eminent 
physicians and surgeons in this country 
immediately rushed forward with various 
instruments, and the privileged few took 
turns in listening for the ticking of the 
watch inside the performer's body. 
"Poor, outraged nature is biding her 
time, ' ' remarked one physician, "but 
mark me, she will have a terrible revenge 
sooner or laterl" 

Eaters of glass, tacks, pebbles, and like ob- 
jects, actually swallow these seemingly impos- 



14S MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

Bible things, and disgorge them after the per- 
formance is over. That the disgorging is not 
always successful is evidenced by the hospital 
records of many surgical operations on per- 
formers of this dass, when quantities of solid 
matter are found lodged in the stomach. 

Delno Frits was not only an excellent sword- 
swallower, but a good showman as well. The 
last time I saw him he was working the ^^halls" 
in England. I hope he saved his money, for 
he was a clean man with a dean reputation, 
and, I can truly say, he was a master in his 
manner of indulging his api>etite for the cold 
steel 

Deodota, an Italian Magician, was also a 
8WordH3wallower of more than average ability. 
He succumbed to the lure of commercialism 
finally, and is now in the jewelry business in 
the ** down-town district'* of New York City. 

Sword-swallowing may be harmlessly im- 
itated by the use of a fake sword with a tele- 
■oopic blade, which slides into the handle. 
Vosin, the Paris manufacturer of magical ap- 
paratus, made swords of this type, but they 
were generally used in theatrical enchantment 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 148 

scenes, and it is very doubtful if tibey were 
ever used by professional swallowers. 

It is quite probable that tlie swords now most 
generally used by the profession, which are 
cut from one piece of metal — handle and all — 
were introduced to show that they were free 
from any telescoping device. Swords of this 
type are quite thin, less than one-eighth of an 
inch thick, and four or five of them can be 
swallowed at once. Slowly withdrawing them 
one at a time, and throwing them on the stage 
in different directions, makes an effective dis- 
play. 

A small, but strong, electric light bulb at- 
tached to the end of a cane, is a very effective 
piece of apparatus for sword swallowers, as, 
on a darkened stage, the passage of the light 
down the throat and into the stomach can be 
plainly seen by the audience. The medical pro- 
fession now make use of this idea. 

By apparently swallowing sharp razors, a 
dime-museum performer, whose name I do not 
recall, gave a variation to the sword-swallow- 
ing stunt. This was in the later days, and 
the act was partly fake and partly genuine. 




144 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 



That is to say, the swaUowing was fair enough, 
but the sharp razors, after being tested by 
cutting hairs, etc., were exchanged for dull 
duplicates, in a manner that, in better hands, 
might have been effective. This chap belonged 
to the great army of unconscious exposers, and 
the '^switch" was quite apparent to all save 
the most careless observers. 

His apparatus consisted of a fancy rack on 
which three sharp razors were displayed, and 
a large bandanna handkerchief, in which there 
were several pockets of the size to hold a razor, 
the three dull razors being loaded in tibis. After 
testing the edge of the sharp razors, he pre- 
tended to wipe them, one by one, with the hand- 
kerchief, and under cover of this he made the 
** switch*' for the dull ones, which he proceeded 
to swallow in the orthodox fashion. His work 
was crude, and the crowd was inclined to poke 
fim at him. 

I have seen one of these performers on the 
street, in London, swallow a borrowed um- 
brella, after carefully wiping the ferrule, and 
then return it to its owner only slighty damp- 
ened from its unusual journey. A borrowed 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 145 

watch was swallowed by the same performer, 
and while one end of the chain hung from the 
lips, the incredulous onlookers were invited to 
place their ears against his chest and listen 
to the ticking of the watch, which had passed 
as far into the aesophagus as the chain would 
allow. 

The following anecdote from the Carlisle 
Journal, shows that playing with sword-swal- 
lowing is about as dangerous as playing with 
fire. 



DISTRESSING OCCITRRENCE 

On Monday evening last, a man named 
William Dempster, a juggler of inferior 
dexterity while exhibiting his tricks in a 
public house in Botchergate, kept by a per- 
son named Purdy, actually accomplished 
the sad reality of one of those feats, with the 
semblance only of which he intended to 
amuse his audience. Having introduced 
into his throat a common table knife which 
he was intending to swallow, he accident- 
ally slipped his hold, and the knife passed 
into his stomach. An alarm was imme- 



l«f MIIACLE-MONOERS AND THEIR METHODS 

diately given, and surgical aid procured, 
but the knife had passed beyond the reach 
of instruments, and now remains in his 
stcnnach. He has since been attended by 
most of the medical gentlemen of this 
city; and we understand that no very 
alarming cfymptoms have yet appeared, 
and that it is possible he may exist a con- 
siderable time, even in this awkward state. 
His sufferings at first were very severe, 
but he is now, when not in motion, com- 
paratively easy. The knife is 9^^ inches 
long, 1 inch broad in the blade, roxmd 
pointed, and a handle of bone, and may 
generally be distinctly felt by applying 
the finger to the unfortunate man's belly; 
but occasionally, however, from change of 
its situation it is not i>erceptible. A brief 
notice of the analogous case of John Cimi- 
ming, an American sailor, may not be un- 
acceptable to our readers. About the year 
1799 he, in imitation of some jugglers 
whose exhibition he had then witnessed, in 
an hour of intoxication, swallowed four 
dasp knives such as sailors commonly use ; 
all of which passed from him in a few days 
without much inconvenience. Six years 
afterward, he swallowed fourteen knives 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 147 

of different sizes; by these, however, lie 
was much disordered, but recovered ; and 
again, in a paroxysm of intoxication, he 
actually swallowed seventeen, of the 
effects of which he died in March, 1809. 
On dissection, fourteen knife blades were 
found remaining in his stomach, and the 
back spring of one penetrating through 
the bowel, seemed the immediate cause of 
his death. 

Several women have adopted the profession 
of sword-swallowing, and some have won much 
more than a passing fame. Notable among 
these is Mile. Edith Clifford, who is, perhaps, 
the most generously endowed. Possessed of 
more than ordinary personal charms, a refined 
taste for dressing both herself and her stage, 
and an unswerving devotion to her art, she 
has perfected an act that has foxmd favor even 
in the Royal Courts of Europe. 

Mile. Clifford was bom in London in 1884 
and began swallowing the blades when only 
15 years of age. During the foreign tour of 
the Barnum & Bailey show she joined that 
organization in Vienna, 1901, and remained 



148 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

with it for five years, and now, after eighteen 
years of service, she stands well up among the 
stars. She has swallowed a 26-inch blade, but 
the physicians advise her not to indulge her 
appetite for such luxuries often, as it is quite 
dangerous. Blades of 18 or 20 inches give her 
no trouble whatever. 

In the spring of 1919 I visited the Bingling 
Bros., ?md the Barnum & Bailey Show espe- 
cially to witness Mile. Clifford's act. In ad- 
dition to swallowing the customary swords 
and sabers she introduced such novelties as a 
specially constructed razor, with a blade five 
or six times the usual length, a pair of scissors 
of unusual size, a saw which is 2% inches wide 
at the broadest point, with ugly looking teeth, 
although somewhat rounded at the points, and 
several other items quite unknown to the bill- 
of-f are of ordinary mortals. A set of ten thin 
blades slip easily down her throat and are re- 
moved one at a time. 

The sensation of her act is reached when the 
point of a bayonet, 23% inches long, fastened 
to the breech* of a cannon, is placed in her 
mouth and the piece discharged; the recoil 



EniTH rUFFORD 
"Ohainplon Sword SwaUower of the World" 



MIRACLE-MONGEBS AND THEIR METHODS 191 

driving the bayonet suddenly down her throat. 
The gun is loaded with a 10 gauge cannon 
sheU. 

MUe. Clifford's handsomely arranged stage 
occupied the place of honor in the section de- 
voted to freaks and specialties. 

Cliquot told me that Delno Fritz was his 
pupil, and Mile. Clifford claims to be a pupil 
of Fritz. 

Deserving of honorable mention also is a 
native of Berlin, who bills herself as Victorina. 
This lady is able to swallow a dozen sharp- 
bladed swords at once. Of Victorina, the Bos- 
ton Herald of December 28th, 1902, said : 

By long practice she has accustomed 
herself to swallow swords, daggers, bayo- 
nets, walking sticks, rods, and other dan- 
gerous articles. 

Her throat and food passages have be- 
come so expansive that she can swallow 
three long swords almost up to the hilts, 
and can accommodate a dozen shorter 
blades. 

This woman is enabled to bend a blade 
after swallowing it. By moving her head 



1 



IBM MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

back and forth she may even twist instru- 
ments in her throat. To bend the body 
after one has swallowed a sword is a dan- 
Koroiis feat, even for a professional swal- 
lowt^r. There is a possibility of severing 
Moim^ of the ligaments of the throat or else 
hirge arteries or veins. Vietorina has al- 
rt^ady had several narrow escapes. 

On one occasion, while sword-swallow- 
ing lH'.fore a Boston audience, a sword 
pierced a vein in her throat The blade 
was half-way down, but instead of imme- 
diately drawing it forth, she thrust it 
farther. She was laid up in a hospital 
for three months after this performance. 

In Chicago she had a still narrower 
escape. One day while performing at a 
museum on Olark Street, Vietorina passed 
a long thin dagger down her throat. In 
withdrawing it, the blade snapped in two, 
leaving the pointed portion some distance 
in the passage. The woman nearly fainted 
when she realized what had occurred, but, 
by a masterful effort, controlled her feel- 
ings. Dropping the hilt of the dagger on 
the floor, she leaned forward, and placing 
her finger and thumb down her throat. 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 158 

I 

just succeeded in catching the end of the 
blade. Had it gone down an eighth of an 
inch farther her death would have been 
certain. 



CHAPTER NINE 

STONE-EATERS : A SILESIAN IN PRAGUE, 1006: 
FRANCOIS BATTALIA, ca. 1641 ; PLATEEUS' 
BEGGAR BOY; FATHER PAULIAN'S LITH- 
OPHAGUS OF AVIGNON, 1760; "THE ONLY 
ONE IN THE WORLD," LONDON, 1788; 
SPANIARDS IN LONDON, 1790; A SECRET 
FOR TWO AND SIX ; JAPANESE TRAINING. 
FROG-SWALLOWERS: NORTON; ENG- 
LISH JACK; BOSCO, THE SNAKE-EATER; 
BILLINGTON'S PRESCRIPTION FOR HANG- 
MEN; CAPTAIN VEITRO. WATER- 

SPOUTERS: BLAISE MANFREDE, ca. 1650; 
FLORAM MARCHAND, 1650. 

THAT the genesis of stone-eating dates back 
hundreds of years farther than is generally 
supposed, is shown by a statement in Wanley's 
Wonders of the Little World, London, 1906, 
Vol. II, page 58, which reads as follows ; 



Anno 1006, there was at Prague a cer- 
tain Silesian, who, for a small reward in 
money, did (in the presence of many per- 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS IffS 

sons) swallow down white stones to the 
number of thirty-six; they weighed very 
near three pounds ; the least of them was 
of the size of a pigeon's egg, so that I 
could scarce hold them all in my hand at 
four times : this rash adventure he divers 
years made for gain, and was sensible of 
no injury to his health thereby. 

The next man of this type of whom I find 
record lived over six hundred years later. 
This was an Italian named Francois Battalia. 
The print shown here is from the Book of 
Wonderful CharacteTs, and is a reproduction 
from an etching made by Hollar in 1641. 

Doctor Bulwer, in his Artifieial Changeling, 
tells a preposterous story of Battalia's being 
bom with two pebbles in one hand and one in 
the other ; that he refused both the breast and 
the pap offered him, but ate the pebbles and 
continued to subsist on stones for the re- 
mainder of his Ufe. Doctor Bulwer thus 
describes his manner of feeding: 

His manner is to put three or four 
stones into a spoon, and so putting them 



156 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

into his mouth together, he swallows them 
all down, one after another; then (first 
spitting) he drinks a glass of beer after 
them. He devours about half a peck of 
these stones every day, and when he clinks 
upon his stomach, or shakes his body, you 
may hear the stones rattle as if they were 
in a sack, all of which in twenty-four 
hours are resolved. Once in three weeks 
he voids a great quantity of sand, after 
which he has a fresh appetite for these 
stones, as we have for our victuals, and by 
these, with a cup of beer, and a pipe of 
tobacco, he has his whole subsistence. 

From a modem point of view the Doctor 
* 'looks easy.^' 

The Book of Wonderful Characters con- 
tinues : 

Platerus speaks of a beggar boy, who 
for four farthings would suddenly swal- 
low many stones which he met with by 
chance in any place, though they were big 
as walnuts, so filling his belly that by the 
collision of them while they were pressed, 
the sound was distinctly heard. Father 
Paulian says that a true lithophagus, or 



MIRACLE-MONGEHS AND THEIR METHODS 1S7 

stone-eater, was brought to Avignon in the 
beginning of May, 1760. He not only 
swallowed flints an inch and a half long, 
a full inch broad, and half an inch thick, 
but such stones as he could reduce to pow- 
der, such as marble, pebbles, etc., he made 
up into paste, which to him was a moat 
agreeable and wholesome food. Father 
Paulian examined this man with all the 
attention he possibly could, and found his 
gullet very large, his teeth exceedingly 
strong, his saliva very corrosive, and his 
stomach lower than ordinary. 

This stone eater was foxmd on Good 
Friday, in 1757, in a northern inhabited 
island, by some of the crew of a Dutch 
ship. He was made by his keeper to eat 
raw flesh with his stones; but he never 
could be got to swallow bread. He would 
drink water, wine, and brandy, which last 
liquor gave him infinite pleasure. He slept 
at least twelve hours a day, sitting on the 
ground with one knee over the other, and 
his chin resting on his right knee. He 
smoked almost all the time he was not 
asleep or not eating. Some physicians at 
Paris got him blooded ; the blood had little 



158 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

or no serum, and in two hours time it be- 
came as fragile as coraL 

He was unable to pronounce more than 
a few words, such as Out, Non, CaiUou, 
Bon. ^^He has been taught,'' adds the 
pious father, evidently pleased with the 
docility of his interesting pupil, ^^to make 
the sign of the cross, and was baptized some 
months ago in the church of St. Gome, at 
Paris. The respect he shows to ecdesi' 
astics and his ready disposition to please 
them, afforded me the opportunity of 
satisfying myself as to all these par- 
ticulars ; and J am fuUy convinced that he 
is no cheat." 

Here is the advertisement of a stone-eater 
who appeared in England in 1788. 

An Extraordinary Stone-Eater 

The Original 

STONE-EATEE 

The Only One in the World, 

Has arrived, and means to perform this, 
and every day (Simday excepted) at Mr. 
Hatch's, trunk maker, 404 Strand, op- 
posite AdelphL 



MIfiACLE-MONGEES AND THEIR METHODS 109 



STONE-EATING 

and 

STONE-SWALLOWING 

And after the stones are swallowed may 

be heard to clink in 

the belly, the same as in a poeket. 

The present is allowed to be the age of 
Wonders and Improvements in the Arts. 
The idea of Man's flying in the Air, 
twenty years ago, before the discovery of 
the use of the balloon, would have been 
laughed at by the moat credulous I Nor 
does the History of Nature afford «o ex- 
traordinary a relation as that of the man's 
eating and subsisting on pebbles, flints, 
tobacco pipes and mineral excrescences; 
but so it is and the Ladies and Gentlemen 
of this Metropolis and its vicinity have 
now an opportunity of vritnessing this ex- 
traordinary Fact by seeing the Most Won- 
derful Phenomenon of the Age, who 
Grinds and Swallows stones, etc., with as 
much ease as a Person would crack a nut, 
and masticate the kemeL 

This Extraordinary Stone-eater ap- 
pears not to suffer the least Inconvenience 
from so ponderous, and to all other per- 



100 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

sons in the World, so indigestible a Meal, 
which he repeats from twelve at noon to 
seven. 

Any Lady or Gentleman may bring 
Black Flints or Pebbles with them. 
N. B. — His Merit is fully demonstrated 
by Dr. Monroe, who in his Medical Com- 
mentary, 1772, and several other Gentle- 
men of the Faculty. Likewise Dr. John 
Hunter and Sir Joseph Banks can witness 
the Surprising Performance of this most 
Extraordinary STONE-EATER. 

Admittance, Two shillings and Six 
pence. 

A Private Performance for five guineas 
on short notice. 

A Spanish stone-eater exhibited at the Rich- 
mond Theater, on August 2nd, 1790, and an- 
other at a later date, at the Great Room, late 
Globe Tavern, comer of Craven Street, 
Strand. 

All of these phenomenal gentry claimed to 
subsist entirely on stones, but their modern 
followers hardly dare make such claims, so 
that the art has fallen into disrepute. 

A number of years ago, in London, 



\ 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 161 

I watched several performances of one of these 
chaps who swallowed, half a hatful of atones, 
nearly the size of hen*s eggs, and then jumped 
up and down, to make them rattle in his stom- 
ach. I could discover no fake in the perform- 
ance, and I finally gave him two and six for 
Ms secret, which was simple enough. He 
merely took a dose of powerful physic to clear 
himself of the stones, and was then ready for 
the next perf onnance. 

During my engagement in 1895 with Welsh 
Bros. Circus I became quite well acquainted 
with, an aged Jap of the San Kitehy Akimoto 
troupe and from him I learned the method of 
swallowing quite large objects and bringing 
them up again at will. For practice very small 
potatoes are used at first, to guard against 
accident; and after one has mastered the art 
of bi'inging these up, the size is increased 
gradually till objects as large as the throat will 
receive can be swallowed and returned. 

I recall a very amusing incident in connec- 
tion with this old chap. 

In one number of the programme he sat 
down on the ring bank and balanced a bamboo 



161 MIRACLE-MONOEBS AND THEIR METHODS 

pole, at the top of which little Massay went 
through the regular routine of poeturings. 
After years spent in this work, my aged friend 
became so used to his job that he did it auto- 
matically, and scarcely gave a thought to the 
boy at the top. One warm day, however, he 
carried his indifference a trifle too far, and 
dropped into a quiet nap, from which he woke 
only to find that the pole was falling and had 
already gone too far to be recovered, but the 
agility of the boy saved him from injury. As 
my knowledge of Japanese is limited to the 
more polite forms, I cannot repeat the remarks 
of the lad. 

Until a comparatively recent date, incred- 
ible as it may seem, frog-swallowers were far 
from uncommon on the bills of the Continental 
theaters. The most prominent, Norton, a 
Frenchman, was billed as a leading feature in 
the high-class houses of Europe. I saw him 
work at the Apollo Theater, Nuremberg, where 
I was to follow him in; and during my engage- 
ment at the Circus Busch, Berlin, we were on 
the same programme, which gave me an oppor- 
timity to watch him closely. 



MIEACLE-MONGEHS AND THEIK METHODS 568 

One of his features was to drink thirty or 
forty large glasses of beer in slow succession. 
The filled glasses were displayed on shelves at 
the back of the stage, and had handles so that 
he could bring forward two or three in each 
hand. When he had finished these he would 
return for others and, while gathering another 
handful, would bring up the beer and eject it 
into a receptacle arranged between the shelves, 
just below the line of vision of the audience. 

Norton coxild swallow a number of half- 
grown frogs and bring them up alive. I re- 
member his anxiety on one occasion when re- 
turning to his dressing-room ; it seems he had 
lost a frog — at least he coiJd not account for 
the entire flock— ^and he looked very much 
scared, probably at the imeertainty as to 
whether or not he had to digest a live frog. 

The Muenchen October Fest, is the annual 
fair at that city, and a most wonderful show it 
is. I have been there twice; once as the big 
feature with Circus Carre, in 1901, and again 
in 1913, with the Circus Corty AlthofE. The 
Continental Circuses are not, like those of this 
coimtry, under canvas, but show in wooden 




164 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

buildings. At these ^October Pests I saw a num- 
ber of frog-swallowers, and to me they were 
very repulsive indeed. In fact, Norton was 
the only one I ever saw who presented his act 
in a dignified manner. 

Willie Hammerstein once had Norton 
booked to appear at the Victoria Theater, New 
York, but the Society for the Prevention of 
Cruelty to Animals would not allow him to 
open; so he returned to Europe without ex- 
hibiting his art (f) in. America. 

In my earlier days in the smaller theaters of 
America, before the advent of the B. F. Keith 
and E. E. Albee theaters, I occasionally ran 
across a sailor calling himself English Jack, 
who could ewaUow live frogs and bring them 
up again with apparent ease. 

I also witnessed the disgusting pit act of 
that degenerate, Bosco, who ate living snakes, 
and whose act gave rise to the well-known 
barkers' cry He eats 'em alive.' If the reader 
wishes further description of this creature's 
work, he must find it in my book. The Unmask- 
ing of Robert Houdin, for I cannot bring my- 
self to repeat the nauseating details here. 



MIEACLE-MONGERS AND THEIE METHODS 165 



During an engagement in Bolton, Eng., I 
met Billington, the official hangman, who was 
convinced that I could not escape from the 
restraint he used to secure those he was about 
to execute. 

Much to his astonishment, I succeeded in 
releasing myself, but he said the time con- 
sumed was more than sufficient to spring the 
trap and launch the doomed soul into eternity. 
Billington told me that he had hardened him- 
self to the demands of Ms office by killing rats 
with his teeth. 

During my engagement at the "Winter Garten, 
Berlin, Captain Veitro, a performer that I had 
known for years in America, where he worked 
in side shows and musemns, came to Berlin 
and made quite a stir by eating poisons. He 
appeared only a few times, however, as his act 
did not appeal to the public, presumably for 
the reason that he had his stomach pumped out 
at each performance, to prove that it really 
contained the poison. This may have been in- 
structive, but it possessed little appeal as en- 
tertainment, and I rarely heard of the venture- 
some captain after that. 



lea MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

Years ago I saw a colored poison-eater at 
Worth's Museum, New York Gily, who told 
me that he escaped the noxious effects of the 
drugs by eating quantities of oatmeal musih. 

Another colored performer took an ordinary 
bottle, and, after breaking it, would bite off 
chunks, crunch them with his teeth, and finally 
swallow them. I have every reason to believe 
that his performance was genuine. 

The beer-drinking of Norton was a more re- 
fined version of the so-called water-spouting of 
previous generations, in which the retuming 
was done openly, a performance that could not 
fail to disgust a modem audience. To be sure, 
in the days of the Dime Museum, a Negro who 
returned the water worked those houses ; but 
his performance met with little approval, and 
it is years since I have heard of such an exhibi- 
tion. 

The first water-spouter of whom I find a 
record was Blaise Manfrede or de Manfre, 
who toured Europe about the middle of the 
seventeenth century. An interesting account 
of this man may be found in my book The Un- 
masking of Robert Houdin. 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIH METHODS 167 

A pupil of Manfrede's, by the name of 
Floram Marchand, who seems to have been 
fully the equal of his master, appeared in Eng- 
land in 1650. The following description of 
Marchand's performance is from The Book of 
Wonderful Characters, edition of 1869, page 
126: 

In the summer of 1650, a Frenchman 
named Floram Marchand was brought 
over from Tours to London, who pro- 
fessed to be able to "turn water into 
wine," and at his vomit render not only 
the tincture, but the strength and smell of 
several wines, and several waters. He 
learnt the rudiments of this art from 
Bloise, an Italian, who not long before 
was questioned by Cardinal Mazarin, who 
threatened him with all the miseries that 
a tedious imprisomnent could bring upon 
him, unless he would discover to >iini by 
what art he did it. Bloise, startled at the 
sentence, and fearing the event, made a 
full confession on these terms, that the 
Cardinal would communicate it to no one 



From this Bloise, Marchand received 
all his instruction ; and finding his teacher 



IM MIRACLE-MONGEBS AND THEIR METHODS 

the more sought after in France, he came 
by the advice of two English Mends to 
England, where the trick was new. Here 
— ^the cause of it being utterly unknown — 
he seems for a time to have gulled and as- 
tonished the public to no small extent, and 
to his great profit. 

Before long, however, the whole mys- 
tery was cleared up by his two friends, 
who had probably not received the share 
of the profits to which they thought them- 
selves entitled. Their somewhat circum- 
stantial account runs as follows. 

To prepare his body for so hardy a task, 
before he makes his appearance on the 
stage, he takes a pill about the quantity of 
a hazel nut, conf ected with the gall of an 
heifer, and wheat flour baked. After 
which he drinks privately in his chamber 
four or five pints of luke-warm water, to 
take all the foulness and slime from his 
stomach, and to avoid that loathsome spec- 
tacle which otherwise would make thick 
the water, and offend the eye of the ob- 
server. 

In the first place, he presents you with a 
pail of luke-warm water, and sixteen 
glasses in a basket, but you are to under- 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 189 

stand that every morning he boils two 
ounces of Brazil thin-sliced in three pints 
of running water, ao long till the whole 
strength and color of the Brazil is ex- 
hausted: of this he drinks half a pint in 
his private chamber before he comes on 
the stage : you are also to understand that 
he neither eats nor drinks in the morning 
on those days when he comes on the stage, 
the cleansing pill and water only ex- 
cepted; but in the evening wiU make a 
very good supper, and eat as much as two 
or three other men who have not their 
stomachs so thoroughly purged. 

Before he presents himself to the spec- 
tators, he washes all his glasses in the best 
white-wine vinegar he can procure. Com- 
ing on the stage, he always washes his first 
glass, and rinses it two or three times, to 
take away the strength of the vinegar, that 
it may in no wise discolour the complexion 
of what is represented to be wine. 

At his first entrance, he drinks four and 
twenty glasses of luke-warm water, the 
first vomit he makes the water seems to be 
a full deep claret : you are to observe that 
his gall-pill in the morning, and so many 
glasses of luke-warm water afterwards, 



170 MIKACLE-MONOBRS AND THEIR METHODS 

will force him into a sudden capacity to 
vomit, which vomit upon so much warm 
water, is for the most part so violent on 
him, that he cannot forbear if he would. 

You are again to understand that all 
that comes from him is red of itself, or has 
a tincture of it from the first Brazil water ; 
but by degrees, the more water he drinks, 
as on every new trial he drinks as many 
glasses of water as his stomach will con- 
tain, the water that comes from him will 
grow paler and paler. Having then made 
his essay on claret, and proved it to be of 
the same complexion, he again drinks 
four or five glasses of luke-warm water, 
and brings forth claret and beer at once 
into two several glasses: now you are to 
observe that the glass which appears to be 
claret is rinsed as before, but the beer 
glass not rinsed at all, but is still moist 
with the white-wine vinegar, and the first 
strength of the Brazil water being lost, 
it makes the water which he vomits up to 
be of a more pale colour, and much like 
our English beer. 

He then brings his rouse again, and 
drinks up fifteen or sixteen glasses of 
luke-warm water, which the pail will 



L 



MIRACLE-MONOEES AND THEIR METHODS 171 

plentifully afford him: he will not bring 
you up the pale Burgundian wine, which, 
though more faint of complexion than the 
claret, he will teU you is the purest wine 
in Christendom. The strength of the Bra- 
zil water, which he took immediately be- 
fore his appearance on the stage, grows 
fainter and fainter. This glass, like the 
first glass in which he brings forth his 
claret, is washed, the better to represent 
the colour of the wine therein. 

The next he drinks comes forth sack 
from him, or according to that com- 
plexion. Here he does not wash his glass 
at all; for the strength of the vinegar 
must alter what is left of the complexion 
of the Brazil water, which he took in the 
morning before he appeared on the stage. 

You are always to remember, that in the 
interim, he will commonly drink up four 
or five glasses of the luke-warm water, 
the better to provoke his stomach to a dis- 
gorgement, if the first rouse will not 
serve turn. He will now (for on every 
disgorge he will bring you forth a new 
colour ) , he will now present you with white 
wine. Here also he will not wash his 
glass, which (according to the vinegar in 



172 MISACLE-MONGEBS AND THEIB METHODS 

which it was washed) will give it a colour 
like it. You are to understand, that when 
he gives you the colour of so many wines, 
he never washes the glass, but at his first 
evacuation, the strength of the vinegar be- 
ing no wise compatible with the colour of 
the Brazil water. 

Having performed this task, he will 
then give you a show of rose-water; and 
this indeed, he does so cunningly, that it 
is not the show of rose-water, but rose- 
water itself. If you observe him, you will 
find that either behind the pail where his 
luke-warm water is, or behind the basket 
in which his glasses are, he will have on 
purpose a glass of rose-water prepared 
for him. After he has taken it, he will 
make the spectators believe that he drank 
nothing but the luke-warm water out of 
the pail ; but he saves the rose-water in the 
glass, and holding his hand in an indirect 
way, the people believe, observing the 
water dropping from his fingers, that it is 
nothing but the water out of the pail. 
After this he will drink four or five glasses 
more out of the pail, and then comes up 
the rose-water, to the admiration of the 
beholders. You are to understand, that 



MIHACLE-MONGEES AND THEIR METHODS 178 

the heat of his body working with his 
rose-water gives a full and fragrant smell 
to all the water that comes from him as if 
it were the same. 

The spectators, confused at the novelty 
of the sight, and looking and smelling on 
the water, immediately he takes the op- 
portunity to convey into his hand another 
glass; and this is a glass of Angelica 
water, whch stood prepared for him be- 
hind the pail or basket, which having 
drunk off, and it being furthered with 
four or five glasses of luke-warm water, 
out comes the evacuation, and brings with 
it a perfect smell of the Angelica, as it was 
in the rose-water above specified. 

To conclude all, and to show you what 
a man of might he is, he has an instriunent 
made of tin, which he puts between his 
lips and teeth; this instrument has three 
several pipes, out of which, his arms 
a-kimbo, a putting forth himself, he will 
throw forth water from hJTn in three 
pipes, the distance of four or five yards. 
This is aU clear water, which he does with 
so much port and such a flowing grace, 
as if it were his master-piece. 

He has been invited by divers gentle- 



19^4 MISACLE-MONGEBS AND THEIB METHODS 

men and personages of honour to make the 
like evacuation in milk, as he made a sem- 
blance in wine. You are to understand 
that when he goes into another room, and 
drinks two or three pints of milk, (hi his 
return, which is always speedy, he goes 
first to his i>ail, and afterwards to his 
vomit. The milk which comes from him 
looks curdled, and shows like curdled milk 
and drink. If there be no milk ready to 
be had, he wiU excuse himself to his spec- 
tators, and make a large promise of what 
he will perform the next day, at which 
time being sure to have milk enough to 
serve his turn, he will perform his prom- 
ise. 

His milk he always drinks in a with- 
drawing room, that it may not be dis- 
covered, for that would be too apparent, 
nor has he any other shift to evade the 
discerning eye of the observers. 

It is also to be considered that he never 
comes on the stage (as he does sometimes 
three or four times in a day) but he first 
drinks the Brazil water, without which he 
can do nothing at all, for all that comes 
from him has a tincture of the red, and 



MIBACLE-MONOEBS AND THEIB METHODS MV 

it only varies and alters according to the 
abundance of water which he takes, and 
the strength of the white-wine vinegar, in 
which all the glasses are washed. 



CHAPTER TEN 

DEFIERS OF POISONOUS REPTILES: THARDO; 
MRS. LEARN, DEALER IN RATTLESNAKES. 

SIR ARTHUR THURLOWCUNYNGHAME 

ON ANTIDOTES FOR SNAKE-BITE. ^JACK 

THE VIPER. ^WILLIAM OLIVER, 1735. 

THE ADVICE OF CORNELIUS HEINRICH 

AGRIPPA, (1486-1535). ^AN AUSTRALIAN 

SNAKE STORY. ^ANTIDOTES FOR VARI- 
OUS POISONS. 

ABOUT twenty-two years ago, during one of 
- my many engagements at Kohl and Mid- 
dleton's, Chicago, there appeared at the same 
house a marvelous ** rattle-snake poison de- 
fier'' named Thardo. I watched her act with 
deep interest for a number of weeks, never 
missing a single performance. For the simple 
reason that I worked within twelve feet from 
her, my statement that there was absolutely 
no fake attached to her startling performance 
can be taken in all seriousness, as the details 
are still fresh in my mind. 

176 



I 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIE METHODS 177 

Thardo was a woman of exceptional beauty, 
botli of form and feature, a fluent speaker and 
a fearless enthusiast in her devotion to her 
art. She would allow herself to be repeatedly 
bitten by rattle-snakes and received no harm 
excepting the ordinary pain of the wound. 
After years of investigation I have come to the 
belief that this immimity was the result of an 
absolutely empty stomach, into which a large 
quantity of mUk was taken shortly after the 
wound was inflicted, the theory being that the 
virus acts directly on the contents of the stom- 
ach, changing it to a deadly poison. 

It was Thardo 's custom to give weekly 
demonstrations of this power, to which the 
medical profession were invited, and on these 
occasions she was invariably greeted with a 
packed house. When the moment of the su- 
preme test came, an awed sHence obtained; 
for the thrill of seeing the serpent flash up and 
strike possessed a positive fascination for her 
audiences. Her bare arms and shoulders pre- 
sented a tempting target for the death-dealing 
reptile whose anger she had aroused. As soon 
as he had buried his fangs in her expectant 



198 MIRACLE-MONGEBS AND THEIB METHODS 

flesh, she would coolly tear him from fhe womid 
and allow one of the physicians present to ex- 
tract a portion of the venom and immediately 
inject it into a rabbit, with the result that the 
poor creature would almost instantly go into 
convulsions and would soon die in great agony. 

Another rattle-snake defier is a resident of 
San Antonio, Texas. Her name is Learn, and 
she once told me that she was the preceptor of 
Thardo. This lady deals in live rattle-snakes 
and their by-products — ^rattle-snake skin, 
which is used for fancy bags and purses; 
rattle-snake oiL which is highly esteemed in 
some quarters ks a spediic for rhemnatism, 
and the venom, which has a pharmaceutical 
value. 

She employs a number of men as snake 
trappers. Their usual technique is to pin the 
rattler to the ground by means of a forked 
stick thrust dexterously over his neck, after 
which he is conveyed into a bag made for the 
purpose. Probably the cleverest of her trap- 
pers is a Mexican who has a faculty of catching 
these dangerous creatures with his bare hands. 
The story goes that this chap has been bitten 



MIHACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 17S 

SO many times that the virus no longer has any 
effect on him. Even that most poisonous of all 
reptiles, the Gila monster, has no terrors for 
him. He swims along the shore where venom- 
ous reptiles most abound, and fearlessly at- 
tacks any and all that promise any income to 
his employer. 

In a very rare book by General Sir Arthur 
Thurlow Cunynghame, entitled, My Command 
in South Africa, 1880, 1 find the following : 

The subject of snake bites is one of no 
small interest in this country. 

Liquid ammonia is, par excellence, the 
best antidote. It must be administered 
immediately after the bite, both inter- 
nally, diluted with water, and externally, 
in its concentrated form. 

The "Eau de luce" and other nostrums 
sold for this purpose have ammonia for 
their main ingredient. But it generally 
happens in the case of a snake bite that the 
remedy is not at hand, and hours may 
elapse before it can be obtained. In this 
case the following treatment will work 
well. Tie a ligatxire tightly above the bite, 
scarify the woxmd deeply with a knife, and 



Its MIBACLE-MONGEBS AND THEIB METHODS 

press either pleasure or pain at his wilL 
Some were purchased by individuals, and 
Jack pocketed his gains, observing, ^'A 
frog, or a mouse, occasionally, is enough 
for a snake's satisfaction." 

The Naturalist's Cabinet says, that ^^In 
presence of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, 
while the philosophers were making elab- 
orate dissertations on the danger of the 
poison of vipers, taken inwardly, a viper 
catcher, who happened to be present, re- 
quested that a quantity of it might be put 
into a vessel; and then, with the utmost 
confidence, and to the astonishment of the 
whole company, he drank it off. Everyone 
expected the man instantly to drop down 
dead; but they soon perceived their mis- 
take, and f oimd that, taken inwardly, the 
poison was as harmless as water." 

William Oliver, a viper catcher at Bath, 
was the first who discovered that, by the 
application of olive oil, the bite of the 
viper is effectually cured. On the first of 
Jime, 1735, he suffered himself to be bitten 
by an old black viper ; and after enduring 
the agonizing symptoms of approaching 
death, by using olive oil he perfectly re- 
jeovered. 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 168 

Vipers' flesh was formerly esteemed for 
its medicinal virtues, and its salt was 
thought to exceed every other animal 
product in giving vigor to a languid con- 
stitution. 

According to Cornelins Heinrich Agrippa 
(called Agrippa of Nettesheim), a German 
philosopher, and student of alchemy and magic, 
who was born in 1486, and died in 1535, "if you 
would handle adders and snakes without harm, 
wash your hands in the juice of radishes, and 
you may do so without harm." 

Even though it may seem a digression, I 
yield to the temptation to include here an extra- 
ordinary "snake story" taken from An Actor 
Abroad, which Edmund Leathes published in 



I vriU here relate the story of a sad 
death — I might feel inclined to call it sui- 
cide — which occurred in Melbourne 
shortly before my arrival in the colonies. 
About a year previous to the time of which 
I am now writing, a gentleman of birth 
and education, a Cambridge B. A, a bar- 
rister by profession and a literary man by 



184 MIRACLE-MONGEBS AND THEIB METHODS 

choice, with his wife and three children 
emigrated to Victoria. He arrived in 
Melbourne with one hundred and fifty 
pounds in his pocket, and hope unlimited 
in his heart. 

Poor man I He, like many another man, 
quickly discovered that muscles in Aus- 
tralia are more marketable than brains. 
His little store of money began to melt 
under the necessities of his wife and fam- 
ily. To make matters worse he was visited 
by a severe illness. He was confined to his 
bed for some weeks, and during his con- 
valescence his wife presented him with an- 
other of those "blessings to the poor 
man,'' a son. 

It was Christmas time, his health was 
thoroughly restored, he naturally pos- 
sessed a vigorous constitution; but his 
heart was begining to fail him, and his 
funds were sinking lower and lower. 

At last one day, returning from a long 
and solitary walk, he sat down with pen 
and paper and made a calculation by 
which he found he had sufficient money 
left to pay the insurance upon his life for 
one year, which, in the case of his death 
occurring within that time, would bring to 



UIBACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 185 



his widow the sum of thi-ee tboxisand 
pounds. He went to the insurance office, 
and made his application — was examined 
by the doctor — the policy was made out, 
his life was insured. From that day he 
grew moody and morose, despair had con- 
quered hope. 

At this time a snake-charmer came to 
Melbourne, who advertised a wonderful 
cure for snake- bites. This charmer took one 
of the balls in the town, and there displayed 
his live stock, which consisted of a great 
number of the most deadly and venomous 
snakes which were to be found in India 
and Australia. 

This man had certainly some most won- 
derful antidote to the poison of a snake's 
fangs. In his exhibitions he would allow 
a cobra to bite a dog or a rabbit, and, in a 
short time after he had applied his nos- 
trum the animal would thoroughly revive ; 
he advertised his desire to perform upon 
humanity, but, of course, he could find no 
one would be fool enough to risk his life 
80 unnecessarily. 

The advertisement caught the eye of the 
unfortunate emigrant, who at once pro- 
ceeded to the hall where the snake- 



186 MIKACLE-MONGEBS AND THEIB METHODS 

charmer was holding his exhibition. He 
offered himself to be experimented upon ; 
the fanatic snake-charmer was delighted, 
and an appointment was made for the 
same evening as soon as the ^^show" 
should be over. 

The evening came ; the unfortunate man 
Kept his appointment, and, in the presence 
of several witnesses, who tried to dissuade 
him from the trial, bared his arm and 
placed it in the cage of an enraged cobra 
and was quickly bitten. The nostrum was 
applied apparentiy in the same manner as 
it had been to the lower animals which had 
that evening been experimented upon, 
but whether it was that the poor fellow 
wilfully did something to prevent its tak- 
ing effect— or whatever the reason — ^he 
soon became insensible, and in a couple of 
hours he was taken home to his wife and 
family — sl corpse. The next morning the 
snake-charmer had flown, and left his 
snakes behind him. 

The insurance company at first refused 
payment of the policy, asserting that the 
death was suicide ; the case was tried and 
the company lost it, and the widow re- 
ceived the three thousand pounds. The 
snake-charmer was sought in vain ; he had 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS IS7 

the good fortune and good sense to be seen 
no more in the Australian colonies. 

As several methods of combating the effects 
of poisons have been mentioned in the fore- 
going pages, I feel ib duty bound to carry 
the subject a little farther and present a list 
of antidotes. I shall not attempt to educate 
my readers in the art of medicine, but simply 
to give a list of such ordinary materials as are 
to be found in practically every household, 
materials cited as antidotes for the more com- 
mon poisons. I have taken them from the 
best authorities obtainable and they are of- 
fered in the way of first aid, to keep the patient 
alive till the doctor arrives ; and if they should 
do no good, they can hardly do harm. 

The first great rule to he adopted is send for 
the doctor at once and give him all possible in- 
formation about the case without delay. Use 
every possible means to keep the patient at a 
normal temperature. "When artificial respira- 
tion is necessary, always get hold of the tongue 
and pull it well forward in order to keep the 
throat clear, then turn the patient over on his 
face and press the abdomen to force out the 



18t MIBACLE-MONGERS AND THEIB METHODS 

air, then turn him over on the back so that the 
lungs may fill again, repeating this again and 
again till the doctor arrives. The best stimu- 
lants are strong tea or coffee ; but when these 
are not suflficient, a tablespoon of brandy, 
whisky, or wine may be added. 

Vegetable and mineral poisons, with few ex- 
ceptions, act as efficiently in the blood as in the 
stomach. Animal poisons act only through 
the blood, and are inert when introduced into 
the stomach. Therefore there is absolutely no 
danger in sucking the virus from a snake bite, 
except that the virus should not be allowed to 
touch any spot where the skin is broken. 

The following list of antidotes is taken largely 
from Appleton^s Medical Dictionary, and Soll- 
mann's A Manual of Pharmacology, Phila- 
delphia, 1917, pages 56 and 57, and has been 
verified by comparison with various other 
authorities at the library of the Medical So- 
ciety of the County of New York : 

Arsenio Induce vomiting with a dessert-spoonfol 

of ground mustard in tepid water. Also 
put the finger in the throat to induce 
retching. When the stomach has been 
emptied, give the patient all the milk 
"*" can take. 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 18d 



Aconite 



Alcohol 
Belladonna 
Bitter-sweet 
Blue vitriol 

• 

Cantharides 



Chloral 
Camphor 

Conium (Hemlock) 
Carbolic Acid 

Calomel 

Corrosive Sublimate 
Croton Oil 



Colocynth 

Ergot 

Food cooked in a 

copper vessel 
Fish poison 
Gases 



Green colcnring 

matter 
Hellebore 
Hyoscyamus 
Iodine 



Induce vomiting as above. Also give ac- 
tive purgative. Stimulate with strong 
tea or coffee. Keep the patient roused. 

Same as for aconite. 

Same as for aconite. 

Same as for aconite. 

Induce vomiting as in arsenic. Then give 
milk, or white of egg, or mucilage. 

Induce vomiting. Give soothing drii&s. 
No oU. Rub abdomen with camphor, 
or camphorated oil. 

Same as for aconite. 

Same as for aconite. 

Same as for aconite. 

White of egg in water, or olive oil, fol- 
lowed by a large quantity of milk. 

CKve white of egg, followed by milk, or 
flour gruel. 

Same as for calomel. 

Induce vomiting. Also give strong purga- 
tive CIS soon <ts possible. Stimulate with 
strong tea or coffee. 

Same as for croton oil. 

Same as for aconite. 

Same as for blue vitrioL 

Same as for croton oil. 

Plenty of fresh air. Inhale ammonia 
(not too strong). Artificial respiration 
if necessary. Stimulate with strong tea 
or coffee. 

Same as for arsenie. 
Same as for aconite. 
Same as for aconite. 
Give starch. 



IM MIBACLE-MONGEBS AND THEIB METHODS 



Lobelia 

Lend 

Malehfls 



Morpliiiie 
Add 



Nitnto of SOver 



Nnz Vofniea 
Ozalk Add 
Opium 
PruBie Add 



Paris Green 

Phoephoms 

Bough on Bats 

Strychnin 

Snlphoric Add 

Toadstool 

Turpentine 

Tin 

Verdigris 

Vermilion 

White vitriol 

Zinc 

For Snake-bite 



Same as lot %^^^^fi 

Sane as far t iIimhi I 

TiMin^it v m—iitiw g, Givie msgiiflBift and 
mucilage. No oiL 

Same as for eakanri 

Spasms may be quieted by inhaling ether. 

Induce vomiting. Give Carbonate of 
Magngwiaj or lima-water. 

Give common salt in water, or carbcmate 
of soda in solution, followed by milk, 
or white of egg* 

Same as for aconite. 

Same as for nitric add. 

Same as for morphine. 

Not mudi can be done, as fatal dose kiDs 
in from three to five minutes. Dilute 
ininmiiM. given instantly might save 
life. 

Same as for arsenic. 

Same as for matches. 

Same as for arsenic 

Same as for morphina 

Strong soap-suds. 

Same es for morphina 

Same as for morphina 

Same as for nitrate of silver. 

Same as for arsenic. 

Same as for calcmieL 

Same as for nitrate of diver. 

Same as for nitrate of £lver. 

The best general treatment for snake-bite 
is to tie a ligature tightly above the 
wound, then suck out as much of the 
vims as posdble. Give the patient 
large quantities of whisky or brandy, 
to induce intoxication. Incise the 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 191 

^:voimd with a red-hot nail, or knitting 
needle. Keep the patient intoxicated 
till the doetor arrives. 

For Boms All bums are more painful when exposed 

to the air. For lesser bums a cloth 
saturated with a strong solution of 
bicarbonate of soda (common cooking 
soda) laid on the bum is probably best. 
This is soothing and keeps out the air. 

For burning clothes Do not allow the victim to run about, for 

that increases the flames. Throw her — 
these accidents usually occur to women 
— on the floor and smother the flames 
with a blanket, rug, or large garment. 
Then, if the bums are severe, place* 
her in a bath at a temperature of 100^ 
or over, keeping her there till the doctor 
arrives. Give stimulants. Do not touch 
the bums more than is absolutely un- 
avoidable. 

For Bums of Acids Dash cold water on the bums, then cover 

with lime-water and sweet oil, or lin- 
seed oil. 

For Bums of 

Caustic Alkalies Apply vinegar. 

Glass, coarse or Give the patient large quantities of bread 
powdered crumbs, and then induce vomiting. 

Ivy poison Wash at once with soap and water; using 

scrubbing brush. Then lay on cloths 
saturated with strong solution bicar- 
bonate of soda. Give cooling drinks. 
Keep the patient quiet and on a low 
diet 



CHAPTER ELEVEN" 

STRONG MEN OF THE EIGHTEENTH CEN- 
TURY: THOMAS TOPHAM (died, 1749); 
JOYCE, 1703; VAN ECKENBERG, 1718; BAR- 
SABAS AND HIS SISTER; THE ITALIAN 
FEMALE SAMPSON, 1724; THE "LITTLE 
WOMAN FROM GENEVA," 1751; BELZONI, 
1 778- 1 823. 



BODILY strength lias won the admiration 
— I might almost say, the worship — of 
mankind from the days of Hercules and his 
ten mythical labors, to the days of Sandow 
with his scores of actual achievements. Each 
generation has produced its quota of strong- 
men, but almost all of them have resorted to 
some sort of artifice or subterfuge in order to 
appear superhiunanly strong. That is to say, 
they added brain to their brawn, and it is a 
difficult question whether their efforts deserve 
to be called trickery or good showmanship. 
Many of the tricks of the profession were 



MIEACLE-MONGERS AND THEIH METHODS 198 

laid bare by Dr. Desaguliera over a hundred 
and fifty years ago and, have been generally 
discarded by athletes, only to be taken up and 
vastly improved by women of the type of The 
Georgia Magnet, who gave the world of science 
a decided start about a generation ago. I shall 
have more to say of her a little further on. 

The jiu jitsu of the Japanese is, in part, a 
development of the same principles, but here 
again much new material has been added, so 
that it deserves to be considered a new art. 

The following, from Dr. Desaguliers' Ex- 
perimental Philosophy, London, 1763, Vol. 1, 
page 289, contrasts feats of actual strength 
with the tricks of the old-time performers ; 

Thomas Topham, born in London, and 
now about thirty-one years of age, five feet 
ten inches high, with muscles very hard 
and prominent, was brought up a carpen- 
ter, which trade he practiced till within 
these six or seven years that he has shewed 
feats of strength; but he is entirely ig- 
norant of any art to make his strength 
appear more surprising; Nay, sometimes 
he does things which become more difficult 



IM MIRACLE-MONGEBS AND THEIB METHODS 

by his disadvantageous situation; at- 
tempting and often doing, what he hears 
other strong men have done, without mak- 
ing use of the same advantages. 

About six years ago he puUed against 
a horse, sitting on the ground with his feet 
against two stumps driven into the 
ground, but without the advantage repre- 
sented by the first figure, PUUe 19; for 
the horse pulling against him drew up- 
wards at a considerable angle, such as is 
represented in the second figure in that 
plate, when hN is the line of traction, 
which makes the angle of traction to be 
NhL: and in this case his strength was 
no farther employed than to keep his legs 
and thighs straight, so as to make them 
act like the long arm of a bended lever, 
represented by Lh, on whose end h the 
trimk of his body rested as a weight, 
against which the horse drew, applying 
his power at right angles to the end 1 of 
the short arm of said lever, the center of 
the motion being a L at the bottom of the 
stumps 1, (for to draw obliquely by a rope 
fastened at h is the same as to draw by an 
arm of a lever at I L, because Z L is a line 
drawn perpendicularly from the center of 



motion to the line of direction hN) and 
the horse not being strong enough to raise 
the man's weight with such disadvantage, 
he thought he was in the right posture for 
drawing against a horse ; but when in the 
same posture he attempted to draw against 
two horses, he was pulled out of his place 
by being lifted up, and had one of his 
knees struck against the stumps, which 
shattered it so, that even to this day, the 
patella or knee-pan is so loose, that the 
ligaments of it seem either to be broken 
or quite relaxed, which has taken away 
most of the strength of that leg. 

But if he had sat upon such a frame as is 
represented in the first figure, (Plate 19) 
he might (considering his strength) have 
kept his situation against the pulling of 
four strong horses vrithout the least incon- 
venience. 

The feats which I saw him perform a 
few days ago, were the following: 

1. By the strength of his fingers (only 
rubbed in coal-ashes to keep them from 
slipping) he rolled up a very strong and 
large pewter-dish. 

2, He broke seven or eight short and 
strong pieces of tobacco-pipe with the 



198 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

force of his middle finger, having laid them 
on the first and third finger. 

3. Having thrust under his garter the 
bowl of a strong tobacco-pipe, his legs be- 
ing bent, he broke it to pieces by the ten- 
dons of his hams, without altering the 
bending of his leg. 

4. He broke such another bowl between 
his first and second finger, by pressing his 
fingers together side-ways. 

5. He lifted a table six feet long, which 
had half a hundred weight hanging to the 
end of it, with his teeth, and held it in a 
horizontal position for a considerable 
time. It is true the feet of the table rested 
against his knees; hut as the length of the 
table was much greater than its height, 
that performance required a great 
strength to he exerted by the muscles of 
his loins, those of his neck, the masseter 
and temporal (muscles of the jaws) he- 
sides a good set of teeth. 

6. He took an iron kitchen-poker, about 
a yard long, and three inches in circum- 
ference, and holding it in his right hand, 
he struck upon his bare left arm, between 
the elbow and the wrist till he bent the 
poker nearly to a right angle. 



MIEACLE-MONGEES AND THEIR METHODS 199 

7. He took such another poker, and 
holding the ends in his hands, and the 
middle against the back of his neck, he 
brought both ends of it together before 
him ; and, what was yet more difficult, he 
pulled it almost straight again: because 
the muscles which separate the arms hori- 
zontally from each other, are not so -strong 
as those that bring them together. 

8. He broke a rope of about two inches in 
circumference which was in part wound 
about a cylinder of four inches diameter, 
having fastened the other end of it to 
straps that went over his shoulders; but 
he exerted more force to do this than any 
other of his feats, from his awkwardness 
in going about it : as the rope yielded and 
stretched as he stood upon the cylinder, 
so that when the extensors of his legs and 
thighs had done their office in bringing the 
legs and thighs straight, he was forced to 
raise his heels from their bearings, and 
use other muscles that are weaker. But 
if the rope had been so fixed, that the part 
to be broken had been short, it would have 
been broken with four times less difficulty. 

9. I have seen him lift a rolling stone 
of about 800 lib. with his hand only, 



100 MIRACLE-MONGEBS AND THEIB METHODS 

standing in a frame above it, and taking 
hold of a chain that was fastened to it 
By this I reckon that he may be ahnost 
as strong again as those who are generally 
reckoned as the strongest men, they gener- 
ally lifting no more than 400 lib. in that 
manner. The weakest men who are in 
health and not too fat, lift about 125 lib. 
having about half the strength of the 
Btrongest (N.B. This sort of compari- 
son is chiefly in relation to the muscles of 
the loins ; because in doing this one must 
stoop forward a little. We must also add 
the weight of the body to the weight lifted. 
So that if the weakest man^s body weighs 
150 lib. that added to 125 lib. makes the 
whole weight lifted by him 275 lib. Then 
if the stronger man's body weighs also 150 
lib. the whole weight lifted by him will be 
550 lib. that is, 400 lib. and the 150 Hb. 
which his body weighs. Topham weighs 
about 200 lib. which added to the 800 lib. 
that he lifts, makes 1000 lib. But he ought 
to lift 900 lib. besides the weight of his 
body, to be as strong again as a man of 
150 Hb.-weight who can lift 400 lib. 

Now as all men are not proportionably 
strong in every part, but some are stronger , 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 201 

in the arms, some ia the legs, and others 
in the back, according to the work and 
exercise which they use, we can't judge 
of a man's strength hy lifting only; but 
a method may be found to compare to- 
gether the strength of different men in 
the same parts, and that too without 
straining the persons who try the experi- 
ment. 

Here follows a long description of a machine 
for the above purpose. 

Topham was not endowed with a strength 
of mind equal to the strength of his body. He 
was married to a wanton who rendered exist- 
ence so insupportable that he committed 
suicide before he was forty years of age, on 
August 10th, 1749.' 

About the year 1703 there appeared in Lon- 
don a native of Kent, by the name of Joyce, 



• Interesting accouQts of Topham's career may be fonnii 
in Wonders of Bodily Strength, New York, 1873, & translfltion 
from the French of Depping, by Charles RusBell; Sir David 
Brewster's, Letters on Natural Magic; London, 1838; Wanley's 
Wonders of the Little World, London, 1806; Wilson's Won- 
derful Characters, London, 1821, (but not in the reprint 
of 186S). 



SM MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

who won the name of a second Samson by a 
series of feats of strength that to the people 
of that day seemed little short of superhmnan« 
Dr. Desaguliers, in his Experimental PhUos- 
ophy, gives the following accomit of Joyce and 
his methods. 

About thirty years ago one Joyce,* a 
Kentish man, famous for his great 
strength (tho' not quite so strong as the 
King of Poland, by the accoimts we have 
of that Prince) shewed several feats in 
London and the country, which so much 
surprised the spectators, that he was by 
most people called the second Sampson.^ 
But tho ' the postures which he had learned 
to put his body into, and found out by 
practice without any mechanical theory, 
were such as would make a man of com- 
mon strength do such feats as would ap- 
pear surprising to everybody that did not 
know the advantages of those positions of 
the body; yet nobody then attempted to 
draw against horses, or raise great 



1 Or WiUiam Joy. 

' This is the spelling used by Joyce, Eckeberg and others, 
for the Samson of the Bible. 



MIEACLE-MONGEHS AND THEIR METHODS 205 

weights, or to do anytMng in imitation 
of Viim ; because, as he was very strong in 
the arms, and grasped those that try 'd his 
strength that way so hard, that they were 
obliged immediately to desire him to de- 
sist, his other feats (wherein his manner 
of acting was chiefly owing to the me- 
chanical advantages gained by the posi- 
tion of his body) were entirely attributed 
to his extraordinary strength. 

But when he bad gone out of Engand, 
or had ceased to shew Ms performances, 
for eight or ten years; men of ordinary 
strength found out the way of making 
such advantage of the same postures as 
Joyce had put himself into, as to pass for 
men of more than common strength, by 
drawing against horses, breaking ropes, 
lifting vast weights, &c. (tho' they cou'd 
in none of the postures really perform so 
much as Joyce; yet they did enough to 
amaze and amuse, and get a great deal of 
money) so that every two or three years 
we have a new second Sampson. 

Some fifteen years subsequent to Joyce*8 
advent, another so-called Samson, this time a 
German named John Charles Van Eckenberg, 



S06 MISACLE*MONGEBS AND THEIR METHODS 

toured Europe with a remarkable performance 
along the same lines as Joyce's. Dr. Desagu- 
liers saw this man and has this to say of him: 

After having seen him once, I guessed 
at his manner of imposing on the multi- 
tude; and being resolved to be fully satis- 
fied in the matter, I took four very curious 
persons with me to see him again, viz. the 
Lord Marquis of Tidlibo/rdine, Dr. Alex- 
ander Stuart, Dr. Pringle, and a me- 
chanical workman, who used to assist me 
in my courses of experiments. We placed 
ourselves in such a manner round the 
operator, as to be able to observe nicely 
all that he did, and found it so practicable 
that we performed several of his feats that 
evening by ourselves, and afterwards I did 
most of the rest as soon as I had a frame 
made to fit in to draw, and another to 
stand in and lift great weights, together 
with a proper girdle and hooks. 

Dr. Desaguliers illustrates Van Eckenberg's 
methods in a very exhaustive set of notes and 
plates, which are too technical and voluminous 
to repeat here, but I will quote sufficiently 



I ' 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 209 

from them to make the modus operandi clear. 
The figures will be found on plate 19. 
Figs. 1 and 2 have already been explained. 

In breaking the rope one thing ia to be 
observ'd, which will much facilitate the 
performance ; and that is to place the iron 
eye L, (Fig. 3) thro' which the rope goes, 
in such a situation, that a plane going 
thro' its ring shall be parallel to the two 
parts of the rope ; because then the rope 
will in a manner be jamm'd iu it, and not 
slipping thro' it, the whole force of the 
man's action will be exerted on that part 
of the rope which is iu the eye, which will 
make it break more easily than if more 
parts of the rope were acted upon. So 
the eye, tho' made round and smooth, may 
be said in some measure to cut the rope. 
And it is after this manner that one may 
break a whip cord, nay, a small jack-line 
with one's hand without hurting it; only 
by bringing one part of the rope to cut 
the other ; that is, placing it so round one's 
left hand, that by a sudden jerk, the whole 
force exerted sliall act on one point of the 
rope. 



810 MISACLE-MONGEBS AND THEIR METHODS 

B is a feather bed upon which the performer 
falls. 

The posture of Pig. 4 Plate 19 (where 
the strong man having an anvil on his 
breast or belly, suffers another man to 
strike with a sledge hammer and forge 
a piece of iron, or cut a bar cold with 
chizzels) tho' it seems surprising to some 
people, has nothing in it to be really 
wondered at; for sustaining the anvil is 
the whole matter, and the heavier the anvil 
is, the less the blows are felt : And if the 
anvil was but two or three times heavier 
than the hammer, the strong man would 
be killed by a few blows; for the more 
matter the anvil has, the more inertia and 
the less liable it is to be struck out of its 
place; because when it has by the blow 
received the whole momentum of the ham- 
mer, its velocity will be so much less than 
that of the hammer as it has more matter 
than the hammer. Neither are we to at- 
tribute to the anvil a velocity less than the 
hammer in a reciprocal proportion of 
their masses or quantities of matter ; for 
that would happen only if the anvil was 
to hang freely in the air (for example) 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS ai8 

by a rope, and it was struck horizontally 
by the hammer. Thus is the velocity given 
by the hammer distributed to all parts of 
a great stone, when it is laid on a man's 
breast to be broken ; but when the blow is 
given, the man feels less of the weight of 
the stone than he did before, because in 
the reaction of the stone, all the parts of 
it round about the hammer rise towards 
the blow ; and if the tenacity of the parts 
of the stone, is not stronger than the force 
with which it moves towards the hammer, 
the stone must break ; which it does when 
the blow is strong, and struck upon the 
centre of gravity of the stone. 

In the 5th Fig. of Plate 19, the man 
IHL (the chairs IL, being made fast) 
makes so strong an arch with his back- 
bone and the bones of his legs and thighs, 
as to be able not only to sustain one man, 
but three or four, if they had room to 
stand; or, in their stead, a great stone 
to be broken with one blow. 

In the 6th and 7th Fig. of the same 
plate, a man or two are raised in the direc- 
tion CM, by the knees of the strong man 
IHL lying upon his back A trial will 
suffice to show that this is not a difficult 
feat for a man of ordinary strength. 



SU MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

Wanley' enumerates thirty men of might, 
each of whom was famous in his time. Notahle 
among them was Barsabas, who first made a 
reputation in Flanders, where he lifted the 
coach of Louis XIV, which had sunk to the 
nave in the mud, all the oxen and horses yoked 
to it having exerted their strength in vain. 
For this service the king granted him a pen- 
sion, and being soon promoted, he at length 
rose to he town-major of Valenciennes. 

Barsabas entering one day a farrier*s 
shop in a country village, asked for horse 
shoes, the farrier showed hiTn some, which 
Barsabas snapped in pieces as if they had 
been rotten wood, telling the farrier at 
the same time that they were too brittle, 
and good for nothing. The farrier wanted 
to forge some more, but Barsabas took up 
the anvil and hid it under his cloak. The 
farrier, when the iron was hot, could not 
conceive what had become of his anvil, but 
his astonishment was still increased when 
he saw Barsabas deposit it in its place 



^ Wonders of the Little World, by Nathaniel Wanley, Lon- 
don, 1806. Vol. I., page 76. 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS SIS 

with the utmost ease. Imagming that he 
had got the devil in his shop, he rao out 
as fast as he could, and did not venture 
to return till his unwelcome visitor had 
disappeared. 

Barsabas had a sister as strong as him- 
self, but as he quitted his home very 
young, and before his sister was bom, he 
had never seen her. He met with her in 
a small town of Flanders, where she car- 
ried on a rope manufactury. The modem 
Sampson bought some of her largest ropes 
which he broke like pack-thread, telling 
her they were very bad. — *'I will give 
some better," replied she, "but will you 
pay a good price for them?" — ^"Whatever 
you choose," returned Barsabas, showing 
her some crown pieces. His sister took 
them, and breaking two or three of them 
said, "Your crowns are as little worth as 
my ropes, give me better money." Bar- 
sabas, astonished at the strength exhibited 
by this female, then questioned her re- 
specting her eoimtry and family, and soon 
learned that she belonged to the same 
stock. 

The dauphin being desirous to see Bar- 
sabas exhibit some of his feats, the latter 



lie MIRACLE-MONGEBS AND THEIE METHODS 

said, "My horse has carried me so long 
that I will carry him in my turn." He 
then placed himself below the animal and 
raising him up, carried him more than 
fifty paces, and then placed him on the 
ground without being the least hurt 

Barsabas' sister was not unique in her cen- 
tury. I quote from a magazine called The 
Parlor Portfolio or Poat-Chaise Companion, 
published in London in 1724 : 

To be seen, at Mr. John Syme'e, Peruke 
maker, opposite the Mews, Charing Cross, 
the surprising and famous Italian Female 
Sampson, who has been seen in several 
courts of Europe with great applause. 
She will absolutely walk, barefoot, on a 
red-hot bar of iron: a large block of 
marble of between two and three thousand 
weight she will permit to lie on her for 
some time, after which she will throw it 
off at about six feet distance, without us- 
ing her hands, and exhibit several other 
curious performances, equally astonish- 
ing, which were never before seen in Eng- 
land. She performs exactly at twelve 
o'clock, and four, and six in the afternoon. 



MIRACLE-MONGEES AND THEIR METHODS 217 

Price half-a-crown, servants and cliildren 
a shilling. 

From the spelling, I judge that the person 
who selected this lady's title must have been 
more familiar with the City Directory than 
with the Scriptures. 

In Edward J. Wood's Giants and Dwarfs, 
London, 1868, 1 find the following: 

A newspaper of December 19th, 1751, 
announces as follows : 

At the new theatre in the Haymarket, 
this day, vrill be performed a concert of 
musick, in two acts. Boxes 3s., pit 2s., 
gallery Is. Between the acts of the con- 
cert will be given, gratis, several exercises 
of rope-dancing and tumbling. There is 
also arrived the little woman from Geneva, 
who, by her extraordinary strength, per- 
forms several curious tilings, viz. 1st. She 
beats a red-hot iron that is made crooked 
straight with her naked feet 2ndly. She 
puts her head on one chair, and her feet 
on another, in an equilibrium, and suffers 
five or six men to stand on her body, which 
after some time she flings off. Srdly. An 
anvil is put on her body, on which two men 



Ill MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

strike with large hammers. 4thl7. A 
stone of a hundred pounds weight is put 
on her body, and beat to pieces with a 
hammer. Stilly. She lies down on the 
ground, and suffers a stone of 1500 pounds 
weight to be laid on her breasts, in which 
position she speaks to the audience, and 
drinks a glass of wine, then throws the 
stone off her body by mere strength, with- 
out any assistance. Lastly, she lifts an an- 
vil of 200 pound weight from the ground 
with her own hair. To begin exactly at six 
o'clock. 



At present the stunt with the two chairs and 
the six men is being exhibited as a hypnotic 
test 

GFiovanni Battista Belzoni, the famous 
Egyptian archeologist, who was a man of 
gigantic stature, began his public career as a 
strongman at the Bartholomew Fair, under the 
management of Gyngell, the conjuror, who 
dubbed him The Yoimg Hercules. Shortly 
afterward he appeared at Sadler's Wells 
Theater, where he created a prof oimd sensa- 
tion, imder the name of The Patagonian Sam- 
son. The feature of his act was carrying a 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 219 

pyramid of from seven to ten men in a manner 
never before attempted. He wore a sort of 
harness with footholds for the men, and when 
all were in position he moved about the stage 
with perfect ease, soliciting **ldnd applause^^ 
by waving a flag. He afterwards became a 
magician, and after various other ventures he 
finally landed in Egypt, where his discoveries 
were of such a nature as to secure for him 
an enviable position in "Who^s Who in 
Archeology. ^^ 



CHAFTEB TWELVE 

CX>NTEMPORARY STKONG PEOPLE: m/LViv^ 
JEFFERSON; LOUIS CYR; JOHN GRUN 

MARX; WILLIAM LE SOY. THE NAIL 

KING, THE HUMAN CLAW-HAMMER ; ALEX- 
ANDER WEYER; MEXICAN BILLY WELLS; 
A FOOLHARDY ITALIAN; WILSON; HER- 
MAN; SAMPSON; SANDOW; YUCCA; LA 

BLANCHE; LULU HURST. THE GEORGIA 

MAGNET. THE ELECTRIC GJSL. ETC; 

ANNIE ABBOTT; MATTIE LEE PRICE. 

THE TWILIGHT OF THE FREAKS. THE 

DIME MUSEUMS. 

FEATS of strengih have always interested 
me greatly, so that in my travels around 
the world I have made it a point to come in 
contact with the most powerful hmnan beings 
of my generation. The one among these who 
deserves first mention is Charles Jefferson, 
with whose achievements I became quite fa- 
miliar while we were working in the same 
miiHcum many years ago. I am convinced that 
he must have been the strongest man of his 

220 



I 
I 

I 

i 



MIEACLE-MONGEES AND THEIE METHODS 2S1 

time at lifting with the bare hands alone. He 
had two feats that he diallenged any mortal 
to duplicate. One was picking up a heavy 
blacksmith's anvil by the horn and placing it 
on a kitchen table ; for the other he had a block 
of steel, which, as near as I can remember, 
must have been about 14 inches long, 12 inches 
wide, and 7 inches thick. This block lay on 
the floor, and his challenge was for anyone to 
pick it up with bare hands. I noticed that it 
required unusually long fingers to grasp it, 
since one could get only tlie thumb on one side. 
Though thousands tried, I never saw, or heard, 
of anyone else who could juggle his anvil or 
pick up t£e weight. True, I saw him surrep- 
titiously rub his fingers with resin, to assist in 
the gripping, but that could have been only 
of slight assistance to the marvelous grip the 
man possessed. 

It is generally conceded that Louis Cyr was, 
in his best days, the strongest man in the 
known world at all-round straight lifting, Cyr 
did not give the impression of being an athlete, 
nor of a man in training, for he appeared to 
be over-fat and not particularly muscular ; but 



ttt MIRACLE-M0NGEB8 AND THEIR METHODS 

he made records in liftiiig which, to the best 
of my knowledge^ no oilier man has been able 
to duplicate. 

JohifQrun Marx, a Lnxemberger, must bave 
been among the strongest men in the world at 
the time I knew him. We worked on the same 
bill several times; but it was at the Olympia, 
in Paris, that he shone supreme as a strong- 
man — ^and at the same time as a weak one. 
For, in spite of his sovereign strength, Marx 
was no match for a pair of bright eyes; all 
a pretty woman had to do was to smile and 
John would wilt. And — ^Paris was Paris. 

Marx's strength was prodigious, and he 
juggled hundreds, and toyed with thousands, 
of pounds as a child plays with a rattle. He 
must have weighed in the neighborhood of 
three hundred pounds, and he walked like a 
veritable colossus. In fact, he reminded me 
of a two-footed baby elephant. 

Always good-natured, he made a host of 
friends both in the profession and out of it. 
After years of professional work he settled 
down as landlord of a public house in England, 
where, finally, he was prostrated by a mortal 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS SM 

illness. Wishing to die in his native city, he 
returned to Lusemberg. He did not realize 
that he was bereft of his enormous strength, 
and those about him humored >iiTn : the doctor 
and the nurses would pretend that he hurt 
them when he grasped their hands. He died 
almost forgotten except by his brother artists, 
but they (myself among them) built a monu- 
ment to this good-natured Hercules, whose 
only care was to entertain. 

Among the strongmen that I met during my 
days with the museums, one whom I f oimd 
most interesting was William Le Boy, known 
as The Nail King and The Hiunan Claw-Ham- 
mer, whose act appealed to me for its original- 
ity. So far as I could learn, it had never been 
duplicated. 

Le Roy was bom in Cincinnati, Ohio, 
October 3rd, 1873. He was about 5 feet XO 
inches in height, and well set up. The inor- 
dinate strength of his jaws, teeth, and neck, 
enabled him to push a nail, held between his 
teeth, through a one-inch board; or to nail 

_ together, with his teeth, two %-inch boards. 

■ He could draw with his teeth a large nail that 



SS4 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

had been driven completely through a two-inch 
plank. Then he would screw an ordinary two- 
inch screw into a hardwood plank with his 
teeth, pull it out with his teeth, and then screw 
it into the plank again and offer $100 to any 
man who could pull it out with a large pair 
of pincers which he proffered for the pur- 
pose. When he had performed these stunts in 
various positions, he would bend Ms body back- 
ward till his head pointed toward the floor, and 
in that position push a nail through a one-inch 
board held perpendicularly in a metal frame. 
I saw no chance for trickery in Le Roy's act. 
Another nail act was that of Alexander 
Weyer, who, either by superior strength or by 
a peculiar knack, could hold a nail between 
the middle fingers of his right hand with the 
head against the palm, and drive it through 
a one-inch board. But since thifi act did not 
get him very far — either on the road to fame, 
or toward the big money — ^he turned to magic 
and finally became one of the leading Con- 
tinental magicians, boasting that he was one 
of the few really expert sleight-of-hand magi- 
cians of the world. 



J 



I 



MIRACLE-MONGERS i 

I met Weyer at Liege, Belgium, where we 
had an aU-mght match with playing cards. He 
admitted that there were some tricks he did 
not know, but he claimed that after once seeing 
any magician work he could duplicate the 
tricks. On this occasion, however, he was un- 
able to make the boast good. 

Another clever performer of those days waa 
Mexican Billy Wells, who worked on the Curio 
platform. His act was the old stone-breaking 
stunt, already explained, except that he had 
the stones broken on Ms head instead of on 
his body. He protected his head with a small 
blanket, which he passed for examination, and 
this protection seemed excusable, considering 
that he had to do at least seven shows a day. 
A strong man from the audience did the real 
work of the act by swinging the heavy sledge- 
hammer on the stone, as shown in the accom- 
panying illustration. Usually the stone would 
be riven by a single blow; but if it was not, 
"Wells would yell, "Harder I harder 1 hit 
harder!" imtil the stone was broken. 

The last I saw of Billy was during one of 
my engagements at the Palace Theater, New 



SS6 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

York. He was then Boliciting ordera for some 
photograph firm, the halcyon days of his big 
money having faded to a memory. But he had 
been a good showman and his was one of the 
best liked working acts in the Curio, as the 
dime-museimi profession was called. 

Of all the acts of this nature tiiat I have 
ever seen I think the most foolhardy was that 
of an imder-sized Italian who lay on Ms back 
on the floor and let fall from his hands, ex- 
tended upward at arm's length heavy weights 
upon his chest — the silly fool! I said as 
much to him — and some other things too. 
His act had little entertainment to show 
as compared with the pain and danger in- 
volved. I do not know what became of him, 
but I can guess. 

Among the museum attractions of those 
years was a man named Wilson who had the 
incredible chest expansion of twenty-one 
inches. This man would allow a strong leather 
strap, about the size of a trunk-strap, to be 
buckled roimd his chest; and tken, inflating 
his lungs, would break it with very little ap- 
parent exertion. An imitator, named Herman, 



I 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIE METHODS 23? 

worked the side shows for a long time with a 
similar act, and was fairly successful, although 
his expansion was only about sixteen inches. 
The last time I heard of "Wilson, he was work- 
ing in the shipyards at Newport News, Vir- 
ginia. 

Another "Samson," a German, among other 
sensational feats, such as breaking coins with 
his fingers, used to flex his muscles and break 
a dog-chain that had been fastened round the 
biceps of his right arm. While he was per- 
forming at the Aquarium, in London, he issued 
a challenge. Sandow, then a youth without 
reputation, accepted the challenge, went upon 
the stage, defeated him, and, since Samson's 
act had been the talk of the town, thus brought 
himself into instant notice, the beginning of a 
career in which he rose to the top of his pro- 
fession. After several successful years on the 
stage, Sandow settled down in London, where 
I last heard of him as conducting a school of 
instruction in health and strength methods. 

In the tradition of the "Female Sampsons" 
noted in Chapter Eleven, I recall two strong- 
women who were notably good; Yucca, who 



228 MiaACLE-MONGEES AND THEIR METHODS 

lifted, a horse by means of a harness over the 
shoulders; and La Blanche, who toyed, with 
heavy articles in a most entertaining way. I 
remember these ladies particularly because 
both were remarkably good talkers — and I am 
referring to conversational quality, not to 
volume. 

Lulu Hurst — known variously as The 
Georgia Magnet, The Electric Girl, The 
Georgia Wonder, etc. — created a veritable sen- 
sation a generation ago by a series of feats 
which seemed to set the law of gravitation at 
defiance. Her methods consisted in utilizing 
the principles of the lever and fulcrimi in a 
manner so cleverly disguised that it appeared 

Lto the audience that some supernatural power 
must be at work. Although she was exposed 
many times, her success was so marked that 
several other muscular ladies entered her 
province with acts that were, in several in- 
stances, superior to the original. 
One of the cleverest of these was Annie Ab- 
bott, who, if I remember rightly, also called 
herself The Georgia Magnet. She took the act 
to England and her opening performance at 



I 



MIBACLE-MONGERS AND THEIE METHODS 229 

the Alhambra is recorded as one of the three 
big sensations of the London vaudeville stage 
of those days. The second sensation was 
credited to the Bullet-Proof Man. This chap 
wore a jacket that rifle bullets, fired point- 
blank, failed to penetrate. The composition 
of this jacket was a secret, but after the 
owner's death the gamaent was ripped open 
and found to contain — grotind glass! The 
third sensation I must, with all due modesty, 
(business of bowing) claim for myself. 

The Magnet failed to attract after about 
forty-eight hours, for a keen-witted reporter 
discovered her meth.ods and promptly pub- 
lished them. The bullet detainer also lasted 
only a short time only. When my opening 
added a third sensational surprise, one of the 
London dailies asked, "Is this going to be 
another Georgia Magnet fiascol" 

That they were gxuming for me is proved 
by the fact that the same newspaper inves- 
tigator who exposed the Magnet, came upon 
the stage of the Alhambra at my press per- 
formance — the same stage where the unhappy 
Dixie lode-stone had collapsed — and though he 



SW MIRACLE-M0NGEB8 AND THSIB METHODS 

brought along an antique slave iron, iP?faiGh 
he seemed to think would put an end to my 
public career on the spot, I manged to escape 
in less than three minutes. When I i>a88ed 
back his irons, he grinned at me and said, ^'I 
don't know how you did it, but you did!" and 
he shook me cordially by the hand. 

Some twenty-six years ago I was on the bill 
with Mattie Lee Price, who, though less well 
known, was in many ways superior to either 
Miss Hurst or Miss Abbott For a time she 
was a sensation of the highest order, for which 
thanks were largely due to the management of 
her husband, a wonderful lecturer and a thor- 
ough showman. I think his name was White. 
He ^^sold" the act as no other man has sold 
an act before or since. 

We worked together at Kohl and Middle- 
ton's, Chicago, and the following week at Bur- 
ton's Museum, Milwaukee ; but when we made 
the next jump I foimd that White was not 
along. They had had a family squabble, the 
other apex of the triangle being a circus 
grafter who "shibbolethed^^ at some of the 
'^ brace games," which at that time had police 



MIRACLE-MO 



I THEIR METHODS 281 



protection, so far as that could be given. He 
had interfered between the couple, and was, 
I am sorry to say, quite successful as an inter- 
ferer; but he was a diabolical failure when 
he attempted to duplicate White's work as lec- 
turer, and the act, after playing a date or two, 
sank out of sight and I have heard nothing 
more of her professionally. Lately I have 
learned that she died in London in 1900 and 
is buried in Clements Cemetery, Fulham. 

This was one of the most positive demon- 
strations I have ever seen of the fact that 
showmanship is the largest factor in putting 
an act over. Miss Price was a marvelous per- 
former, but without her husband-lecturer she 
was no longer a drawing card, and dropped 
to the level of an ordinary entertainer — even 
lower, for her act was no longer even enter- 
taining. 

In Chapter Eleven we read Dr. Desaguliers' 
analysis of the mechanics of what may be 
called strongmanship. Similar investigations 
have attended the appearance of more recent 
performers. 

For instance, reviewing one of Lulu Hurst's 



282 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

performances, the New York Times, of July 
13th, 1884, said: 

The "Phenomenon of the Nineteenth 
Century," which may be seen nightly at 
Wallack's, is not so much the famous 
Georgia girl, with her mysterious muscle, 
as is the audience which gathers to wonder 
at her performance. It is a phenomenon 
, of stupidity, and it only goes to show how 
willingly people will be fooled, and with 
■what cheerful asinirdty they will help on 
their deceivers. 

Then follows a description of her perform- 
ance, which was far from successful, thanks 
to the efforts of one of the committee, a man 
described as "Mr. Thomas Johnson, a power- 
fully-built engraver connected with the Cen- 
tury magazine." Mr. Johnson had evidently 
caught her secret, and he got the better of 
her in all the tests in which he was allowed to 
take part. 

A disclosure of the methods employed in a 
few of her "tests" will serve to convince the 
reader of the fact that she possessed no super- 
normal power, the same general principles 



MIEACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS »i8 

shown here being used throughout her per- 
formance. 

These esplanatiozis are taken from the 
French periodical La Nature, in which Mr, 
Nelson W. Perry thus sums up the attitude 
of the public in regard to this class of per- 
formance: "Electricity is a mysterious agent; 
therefore everything mysterious is electric." 
Of the performance of the Electric Girl thia 
magazine says : 

It is a question of a simple application 
of the elementary principles of the laws 
of mechanics, chapter of equilibrium. 

We propose to point out here a certain 
number of such artifices and to describe 
a few of the experiments, utilizing for this 
purpose the data furnished by Mr. Perry, 
as well as those resulting from our own 
observations. 

One of the experiments consists in hav- 
ing a man or several men hold a cane or 
a billiard cue horizontally above the head, 
as shown in Fig. 1. On pushing with one 
hand, the girl forces back two or three 
men, who, in unstable equilibrium and 
under the oblique action of the thrust 



S94 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

exerted, are obliged to fall back. This 
first experiment is so elementary and in- 
fantile that it is not necessary to dwell upon 
it. In order to show the relative sizes of 
the persons, the artist has supposed the 
little girl to be standing on a platform in 
the first experiment, but in the experi- 
ment that we witnessed this platform was 
rendered useless by the fact that the girl 
who performed them was of sufficient 
height to reach the cue by extending her 
arms and standing on tiptoes. 

Next we have a second and more com- 
plex experiment, less easily explained at 
first sight. 

Two men (Fig. 2) take a stick about 
three feet in length, and are asked to hold 
it firmly in a vertical position. The girl 
places her hand against the lower end of 
the stick, in the position shown, and the 
two men are invited to make the latter 
slide vertically in the girPs hand, which 
they are unable to do, in spite of their 
conscientious and oft-repeated attempts. 

Mr. Perry explains this exercise as fol- 
lows: The men are requested to place 
themselves parallel to each other, and the 
girl, who stands opposite them, places the 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 285 

palm of her hand against the stick and 
turned toward her. She takes eare to 
place her hand as far as possible from the 
hands of the two men, so as to give her- 
self a certain leverage. She then begins 
to slide her hand along the stick, gently 
at first, and then with an increasing pres- 
sure, as if she wished to better the con- 
tact between the stick and her hand. She 
thus moves it from the perpendicular and 
asks the two men to hold it in a vertical 
position. 

This they do under very disadvantage- 
ous conditions, seeing the difference in the 
length of the arms of the lever. The stress 
exerted by the girl is very feeble, because, 
on the one hand, she has the lever arm 
to herself, and, on the other, the action 
upon her lever arm is a simple trac- 
tion. When she feels that the pressure 
exerted is great enough, she dii'ects the 
two men to exert a vertical stress strong 
enough to cause the stick to descend. They 
then imagine that they are exerting a 
vertical stress, while in reality their 
stresses are horizontal and tend to keep 
the stick in a vertical position in order to 
react against the pressure exerted at the 
lower end of the stick. 



iS6 If UtACLE-MONOEBS AND THEIB METHODS 

There is evidently a certain vertical 
component that tends to cause the stick to 
descend, but the lateral pressure produces 
a sufficient friction between the hand and 
Hie stick to support this vertical force 
without difficulty. Mr. Perry performed 
the experiment by placing himself upon 
a spring balance and assuming the role 
of the girl, with two very strong men as 
adversaries. All the efforts made to cause 
the stick to slide in the open hand failed, 
and the excess of weight due to the vertical 
force always remained less than twenty- 
five pounds, despite the very determined 
and sincere stresses of the two men, who, 
unbeknown to themselves, were exerting 
their strength in a horizontal direction. 

In the experiment represented in Fig. 
3, which recalls to mind the first one (Fig. 
1), the two men are requested to hold the 
stick firmly and immovable, but the slight- 
est pressure upon the extremity suffices to 
move the arms and body of tiie subject 
Such pressure in the first place is exerted 
but slightly, and the stresses are gradually 
increased. Then, all at once, when the 
force exerted horizontally is as great as 
possible, and the men are exerting their 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS «7 

strength in the opposite direction in order 
to resist it, the girl abruptly ceases the 
pressure without warning and exerts it in 
the opposite direction. Unprepared for 
this change, the victims lose their equili- 
brium and find themselves at the mercy 
of the girl, and so much the more bo in 
proportion as they are stronger and their 
efforts are greater. The experiment suc- 
ceeds still better with three than with two 
men, or with one man. 

The experiment represented in Fig. 4, 
where it concerns the easy lifting of a 
very heavy person, the trick is no less 
simple. Out of a hundred persons sub- 
mitted to the experiment, ninety-nine, 
knowing that the experimenter wishes to 
lift them and cause them to fall forward, 
grasp the seat or amos of the chair, and, 
in endeavoring to resist, make the whole 
weight of their body bear upon their feet. 
If they do not do so at the first instant, 
they do so when they are conscious of the 
attempts of the girl to raise the seat, and 
they help therein unconsciously. The ex- 
perimenter, therefore, needs only to exert 
a horizontal thrust, without doing any 
lifting, and such horizontal thrust is f acil- 



S88 MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 

itated by taJdng the knees as points of 
support for her elbows. As soon as a 
slight movement is effected, the hardest 
part of the work is over, for it is only 
necessary for the girl to cease to exert 
her stresses in order to have the chair fall 
back or move laterally in one direction or 
the other. At all events, the equilibrium 
is destroyed, and, before it is established 
again, it requires but little dexterity to 
move the subject about in all directions 
without a great expenditure of energy. 
The difficulty is not increased on seating 
two men, or three men, upon each other's 
knees (as shown in Fig. 4), since, in the 
latter case, the third acts as a true counter- 
poise to the first, and the whole pretty well 
resembles an apparatus of unstable equili- 
brium, whose centre of gravity is very 
high and, consequently, so much more 
easily displaced. 

All these experiments require some lit- 
tle skill and practice, but are attended 
with no difficulty, and, upon the whole, do 
not merit the enthusiastic articles that 
have given the ** electric'' or " magnetic '* 
girl her European reputation. 



MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS 289 

Strong people, whether tricksters or genuine 
athletes, or both, we shall probably have al- 
ways with ns. But with the gradual refine- 
ment of the public taste, the demand for such 
exhibitions as fire-eating, sword-swallowing, 
glass-chewing, and the whole repertoire of the 
so-called Human Ostrich, steadily declined, 
and I recall only one engagement of a per- 
former of this type at a first-class theater in 
this country during the present generation, 
and that date was not played. 

There was still a considerable demand for 
these people in the dime museums, until the 
enormous increase in the niunber of such 
houses created a demand for freaks that was 
far in excess of the supply, and many houses 
were obliged to close because no freaks were 
obtainable, even at the enormous increase in 
salaries then in vogue. The small price of 
admission, and the fact that feature curios 
like Laloo or the Tocci Twins drew down seven 
or eight hundred dollars a week, show that 
these houses catered to a multitude of people ; 
and not a few of the leading managers 



S40 MISACLE-MONGEBS AND THEIR METHODS 

of to-day's yaudeville, owe their start in life 
to the dime xnuseimL 

Among the museums that were veritable 
gold mines, I might mention Epstein's of 
Chicago; Brandenberg's of Philadelphia; 
Moore's of Detroit and Rochester ; The Sackett 
and Wiggins Tour; Kohl and Middleton's; 
Austin and Stone's of Boston; Bobinson 
of Buffalo; Ans Huber's, Globe, Harlem, 
Worth's, and the Gayety of New York. 

The dime museum is but a memory now, and 
in three generations it will, in all probability, 
be utterly forgotten. A few of the acts had 
sufficient intrinsic worth to follow the man- 
agers into vaudeville, but these have no part 
in this chronicle, which has been written rather 
to commemorate some forms of entertainment 
over which oblivion threatens to stretch her 
darkening wings. 



THE EBD 



] 



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J^J ^ 



3tlOS 054 340 ■ 



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